Christie vetoes minimum wage hike in New Jersey
ASBURY PARK, N.J. — Gov. Chris Christie vetoed legislation Tuesday that would have gradually raised New Jersey’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, thwarting a Democratic effort to join the politically divisive effort to mandate increased pay for entry- and lower-level workers.
But Christie, a Republican, issued a call to arms to his supporters and other opponents of a minimum wage hike, which the Democrats who control the Legislature have made a centerpiece of their agenda, saying that he anticipates a spirited and protracted debate on the matter to last through the end of his term in January 2018.
“Today’s just another round in this fight on the minimum wage. But I want to make sure all of you understand it is a fight that we will all lose if we don’t fight publicly, loudly, aggressively,” Christie said after he vetoed the measure at a supermarket in Mercer County.
Democrats promptly accepted the challenge. Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto issued statements saying they would move to put the issue to voters to decide in a referendum in November 2017, when they will also choose a successor to Christie.
“This decision now forces our hand. We gave the governor the opportunity to do the right thing, but unfortunately he declined,” Prieto said in a statement. “Moving forward, we will turn to voters to let them decide if a fair and just livable wage is the one they want for New Jersey. As a compassionate and progressive state, I am confident that New Jersey residents will eventually right this wrong.”
Sweeney said Christie’s veto of a “responsibly phased-in” increase of the minimum wage was “unproductive but sadly predictable.”
The bill proposed raising the state minimum wage, currently $8.38 an hour, to $10.10 beginning Jan. 1, 2017, with gradual increases to $15 an hour by 2021.
New Jersey would have become the third state to raise the hourly wage to $15, after California and New York. But the bill never had a chance with Christie, who has often and openly criticized what he calls a government-knows-best approach to growing businesses and the economy.
Surrounded by peaches, bananas and zucchini, Christie vetoed the bill in a ceremony in the produce section at Pennington Quality Market.
Government, he said, doesn’t “have the right” to force wage increases on employers and he insisted that doing so would make New Jersey “non-competitive” with neighboring states. He said he recently met with the owner of two gas stations and a convenience store in Bergen County, and that the man told him that the wage increase would nearly double his payroll to $680,000 from $380,000.
“This bill is a complete pander to folks who are uninformed because they neither receive the minimum wage nor pay it,” Christie said.