April 16, 2019
by Jennifer Tiedemann
For New Jersey Senator and
presidential candidate Cory Booker, his state’s new $15 per hour minimum wage
is good, but by no means good enough. Despite the terrible toll that such a
high base wage can take on workers and businesses, he doubled down on the
failed economic policy in a media blitz last weekend.
On Saturday, Booker
kicked off his “Justice for All” campaign tour in Newark, and yesterday
morning, he
joined CNN’s “New Day” to talk about his campaign and his perspective on
economic justice. When asked what a living wage might look like in this country,
Booker responded that $15 per hour “would be a start.” That should strike fear
into the heart of anyone who knows what the real-world effects of a $15-per-hour
minimum wage have been.
It’s no secret that
Booker is a big backer of the so-called “Fight for $15,” a union-backed
nationwide lobbying effort to raise the minimum wage. When Governor Phil Murphy
signed New Jersey’s new minimum wage law earlier this year, Booker tweeted
that this marked a “big step forward for economic justice in our state,” and
that fighting for a $15-per-hour minimum wage “continues to ensure every
working American has a job that pays a living wage.”
But here’s the thing: A
living wage only matters when you have a job. And in the places where the
$15-per-hour minimum wage is now law, the effects haven’t been what its
proponents promised.
In New Jersey, you only
need look across the Hudson River to neighboring New York City for proof of
that. In the Big Apple, restaurant
jobs are on the decline for the first time in more than 10 years, after the
city’s minimum wage went up to $15 per hour at the end of last year. Some employers
are cutting worker hours or cutting jobs entirely in order to cushion the blow
of the raised base wage.
And the Garden State is
already known for having an abysmal economic climate. Just this week, the
American Legislative Exchange Council released the latest edition of “Rich States, Poor States,” its
annual report on state economic growth and competition. This year, New Jersey ranks 46th
in economic outlook (just California, Illinois, Vermont, and New York rank
lower) and 49th in economic performance (Connecticut is the only
state that performs worse).
New Jersey’s high
corporate taxes have already helped to drive several large companies from the
state. Honeywell,
Mercedes-Benz
USA, Hertz,
and Sealed
Air Corporation (the manufacturer of Bubble Wrap), just to name a few, have
moved or announced that they will be moving their corporate headquarters out of
state over the past few years. Several have noted New Jersey’s adverse economic
landscape as a reason behind their decision to relocate. Now, raising the
minimum wage stands to hurt small businesses—those who can’t afford to take on
more costs to make their business work. Raises in the state minimum wage will
cement New Jersey’s status as one of the least appealing states to do business.
And yet Cory Booker calls a $15-per-hour base wage just a start. It is a start—but it’s really a start toward a rockier economic future that offers fewer opportunities to job-seekers. It’s not really a living wage if it makes it harder to make a living. As Booker embarks on his nationwide campaign tour, that’s a message he could stand to hear.
Jennifer Tiedemann is the Deputy Communications Director at the Goldwater Institute.
