State minimum wage rises to $15.92
Increase is pegged to the consumer price index
By: Daniel Munoz
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... New Jersey's minimum wage rose 43 cents on January 1 [2026] to $15.92, the latest of the scheduled hikes that outgoing Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat, signed into law in early 2019.
.....
The state's minimum wage was $8.60 when Murphy took office in 2018. He campaigned on increasing the minimum wage OT $15 an hour, a big-ticket item among progressives at the time.
..... Under the state constitution, the minimum wage is pegged to the consumer price index - basically inflation.
..... "This increase will provide vital support to all Garden State workers by making the dream of a livable wage reality," New Jersey Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo said in an October [2025] statement.
..... New Jersey's minimum wage had been $15.49, blow Washington DC, California, Connecticut, Washington State and parts of southern New York state, including New York City and Long Island, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
..... There are some carve-outs to New Jersey's $15.92 minimum wage.
* Seasonal business and those with up to five workers are inversing 70 cents, from $14.53 to $15.23, with continual increases until 2028, and inflation adjustments that will continue after that
* Farm workers are seeing their hourly wage increase 80 cents form $13.40 to $14.20. their wages will increase until 2030, and inflation adjustments that will continue after that
* Wages for long-term care workers increased by 43 cents form $18.49 to $18.92
* Wages for tipped workers like bartenders and restaurant employees rose from $5.62 to $6.05 an hour. If tips and minimum wage combined fall short of $15.92 an hour, employers will have to make up the difference.
Is it enough?
..... Murphy signed the $15 minimum wage increase in February 2019. According to the federal inflation calculator, to match what $15 was worth in February 2019. a worker would need to be paid $19.27 as of September 2025.
.....
According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Living Wage Calculator, two working parents with two children would each need to be paid $34.87 an hour in Bergen County to afford a basic standard of living in 2025.
..... MIT's "living wage" attempts to calculate how much a person would need to earn to afford basic necessities including food, child care, health care, housing, transportation and broadband access.
..... And United Way of Northern New Jersey protected in May [2025] that 39% of New Jersey residents, while above the federal poverty levee, still could not afford basic household necessities.
..... This demographic has been referred to by Unite Way as an "Asset Limited, Income constrained, employee," or ALICE.
..... "The increase in the state minimum wage over the last five years has helped many families living paycheck to paycheck," Stephanie Hoopes, national director of Uniited for ALICE, said in a December 3 [2025] statement. Her group studies low-income households. "But the cost of basics has also surged during this period."
..... In October [2025]
NorthJersey.com asked then-gubernatorial candidate and U.S. Representative Mikie Sherrill whether she would be open to increase the minimum wage beyond the levels agreed to in 2019.
..... Sherrill, a Democrat who ultimately won the governor's race, would not commit to such an increase, but said that she would enforce the state's minimum wage inflation adjustment, like the increase that took effect on January 1. [2026]