SENATE, No. 1478

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

INTRODUCED SEPTEMBER 19, 1996

By Senator LIPMAN

An Act increasing the minimum wage and amending P.L.1966, c.113.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. Section 5 of L.1966, c.113 (C.34:11-56a4) is amended to read as follows:

    5.    Every employer shall pay to each of his employees wages at a rate of not less than [$3.80 per hour as of the effective date of P.L.1990, c.18, $4.25 per hour as of April 1, 1991 and] $5.05 per hour as of April 1, 1992, $5.55 per hour as of July 1, 1996 and $6.00 per hour as of July 1, 1997 for 40 hours of working time in any week and 1 1/2 times such employee's regular hourly wage for each hour of working time in excess of 40 hours in any week, except this overtime rate shall not include any individual employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity or, if an applicable wage order has been issued by the commissioner under section 17 (C.34:11-56a16) of this act, not less than the wages prescribed in said order, and, commencing January 1, 1998, the commissioner shall, no later than March 1 of each year, adjust the minimum hourly wage rate set forth in this section in direct proportion to the rise or fall of the consumer price index for all urban consumers in the New York City and the Philadelphia areas as reported by the United States Department of Labor and the adjustment shall become effective on July 1 of each year. The wage rates fixed in this section shall not be applicable to part-time employees primarily engaged in the care and tending of children in the home of the employer, to persons under the age of 18 not possessing a special vocational school graduate permit issued pursuant to section 15 of P.L.1940, c.153 (C.34:2-21.15), or to persons employed as salesmen of motor vehicles, or to persons employed as outside salesmen as such terms shall be defined and delimited in regulations adopted by the commissioner, or to persons employed in a volunteer capacity and receiving only incidental benefits at a county or other agricultural fair by a nonprofit or religious corporation or a nonprofit or religious association which conducts or participates in that fair.

    The provisions of this section for the payment to an employee of not less than 1 1/2 times such employee's regular hourly rate for each hour of working time in excess of 40 hours in any week shall not apply to employees engaged to labor on a farm or employed in a hotel or to an employee of a common carrier of passengers by motor bus or to a limousine driver who is an employee of an employer engaged in the business of operating limousines or to employees engaged in labor relative to the raising or care of livestock.

    Employees engaged on a piece-rate or regular hourly rate basis to labor on a farm shall be paid for each day worked not less than the minimum hourly wage rate multiplied by the total number of hours worked.

    Full-time students may be employed by the college or university at which they are enrolled at not less than 85% of the effective minimum wage rate.

(cf: P.L.1995, c.387, s.2)

    2. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

    This bill increases New Jersey's minimum wage rate from its current level of $5.05 per hour to $5.55 per hour as of July 1, 1996 and $6.00 per hour as of July 1, 1997. The bill requires that, starting in 1998, the minimum wage rate be adjusted annually, based on changes in the consumer price index, with the adjustment taking effect on July 1 of each year.

    Legislation is currently pending in the Congress of United States to increase the federal minimum hourly wage by 90 cents, from $4.25 to $5.15, over a two year period, an increase equal to that provided by this bill. The purpose of the bill is to sustain New Jersey's minimum wage at a level appropriate in light of New Jersey's cost of living, which is 20% higher than the national average. Because of New Jersey's above average minimum wage, only 7% of New Jersey wage earners are paid less than $5.15 per hour, compared to states like Mississippi, Oklahoma, Wyoming and Texas, in which more than 20% of wage earners are paid below $5.15 per hour.

    A full-time worker paid New Jersey's minimum wage receives $10,100 per year, far below the national poverty level of $15,600 per year for a family of four. An increase in the minimum wage is an appropriate step to lift the incomes of tens of thousands of hard-working New Jersey citizens.

Increases minimum wage.