By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
Gov. Chris Christie vetoed the Democrats’ $15 minimum wage bill with a grim little flourish — inside a family-owned supermarket, where the boss says small businesses like his can’t afford to pay almost double New Jersey’s current $8.25 per hour minimum wage.
His reality?
“Businesses like ours operate on very slim profit margins. A dramatic increase in the minimum wage … would force New Jersey food stores to make up for this significant expense by reducing staff, cutting hours and raising prices,” said Pennington Quality Market owner Mike Rothwell.
“I understand there’ll be plenty of people who will play the pander card: the governor doesn’t want to increase people’s wages. No, I don’t want to increase people’s wages. I don’t have the right to do it. The people who should increase the wages are the folks who run those businesses,” Christie said.
The audience of invited business leaders heartily agreed. They call the measure — which would’ve raised wages for about a million New Jersey workers — a flat-out job killer and will continue to fight the issue.
State Chamber of Commerce President Tom Bracken is on NJTV’s Board of Trustees.
“This is not positive for the state of New Jersey. It’s not even a positive for the people who are proposed to get a benefit of this, because some people, yes will make more money, but a lot of people will be out of a job,” he said.
“These are not the kind of things that we want happening in our state. In addition we don’t want to make our state an outlier on costs. We’ll be one of only three states that has this. That’s not a distinction that we should be looking for,” Christie said.
“I expected it, but I’m still disappointed in the governor’s action,” said Analilia Mejia, executive director of New Jersey Working Families Alliance.
Labor advocates lobbied hard for the bill. Minimum wage workers in New Jersey take home $17,430 a year and advocates claim studies show a robust minimum wage benefits both workers and the economy.
“We know that in 68 percent of the times that the minimum wage has been increased across the nation, in different states we’ve seen an increase in employment,” Mejia said.
Christie warned Democratic lawmakers will once again ask New Jersey voters to raise wages via a constitutional amendment next year. But one of the vetoed bill’s sponsors said they’re exploring options.
“This governor’s reign of destruction in Trenton will be over in less than 18 months, that help is on the way. Because there will be a Democratic governor. We need to find a way to make sure our working poor — the men and women who provide so many services to so many industries in our state — have the ability to work with dignity,” said Assemblyman John Wisniewski.
The governor says he expects the public discussion over the $15 minimum wage will be loud, difficult and expensive. And it’s already started.