Jersey City is first in NJ to raise minimum wage to $15 an hour

Jersey City, New Jersey Mayor Steven Fulop raised his city’s minimum wage to $15 by Executive Order. WEBSITE

JERSEY CITY, New Jersey – Jersey City will be the first municipality in New Jersey to raise the minimum wage to $15 for city workers, with more than 500 city employees receiving an increase in their take-home pay.

Mayor Steven M. Fulop announced last Feb. 29 that the move, by Executive Order and reflected in the city’s budget, would take effect immediately. Some 16,200 Filipinos reside in the city.

“Last November I stood with the brave organizers of the Fight for $15 right here in Jersey City and spoke about how important it was that we bring relief to New Jersey’s working families. After months of planning, I am proud to say that today we’re actually following through on that commitment,” said Fulop in a press release. “Not only is this the right thing for Jersey City, but it’s my hope that our actions today will help move Trenton towards providing all New Jerseyans a living wage.”

The mayor’s Executive Order raises the wage of all adult, full-time Jersey City employees to a minimum of $15 an hour. Summer internships for youth under 18 years of age will continue to pay $9 an hour.

New Jersey’s minimum wage was raised by a ballot initiative in 2013 to $8.25 and indexed to inflation. However, it continues to fall short of what experts estimate New Jersey residents need to afford the cost of living. According to a report by the United Way of Northern New Jersey, a single New Jerseyan without children would need to earn $13.78 an hour to afford basic necessities such as food and shelter, and $19.73 to achieve simple economic stability.

The move by Jersey City is the first such move by any municipality or state government agency in New Jersey.  New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York recently announced their own plans to increase the minimum wage for New York City and State employees to $15 an hour to be phased in over a period of years, however, Jersey City’s increase was included in the 2016 budget and will take effect immediately.

Last October, Mayor Fulop joined Mayor Baraka of Newark and other officials from around the state in support of a $15 wage for thousands of janitors statewide.

In November, the Fight for $15 campaign came to Jersey City to hold a press conference in City Hall announcing further support. Today’s announcement, done at no additional cost to taxpayers, is the culmination of months of planning since then, said Fulop’s office.

Like us on Facebook