Codey Opposes Minimum Wage Hike

From njbiz.com.

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) has told NJBIZ he would block any legislation that would increase the state’s $7.15-per-hour minimum wage. . . .

Codey says it would be asking too much of business to swallow both a minimum-wage hike and paid-family leave at the same time.

Believe it or not, I want us to have a "social safety net." We can't leave the poor to their own devices. I don't think it should be managed at the federal level, but I'm okay with welfare. I struggle with the way we implement it, though.

Part of the problem is that we use language that impedes understanding rather than helps it. Check this out:

Paid-family leave legislation...is a worker-funded program... “We are hitting [business] with paid-family leave now,” says Codey.

If it were really "worker-funded", we wouldn't be hitting business with it, right?

Anyway, we have a very clunky process for dealing with the minimum wage. Do we really have to do this?

The current $7.15 minimum wage ranks 10th highest in the country and is tied with New York, Michigan and Alaska, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. An $8.25 minimum wage would vault New Jersey to No. 1. . . .

Philip Kirschner, president of the New Jersey Busness & Industry Association and a member of the minimum-wage commission, voted against the hike. “Increasing the minimum wage to $8.25 will give us the highest minimum wage in the country and will result in a 55 percent increase in just three years,” says Kirschner. “For businesses that employ entry-level minimum-wage workers, that is very difficult.”

He adds that automatic cost-of-living hikes could drive call centers, light manufacturing and other businesses to lower minimum-wage states. “Pennsylvania and New York do not have [automatic raises],” he says. “In two years, we will be $1.50 more than [New York]. There are not many businesses that will pay that much extra for the same work they can get in New York and Pennsylvania.”

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