My jobs as a kid were not worth NJ’s shocking new minimum wage

It’s a brand-new year, and small businesses across New Jersey will have to dig a bit deeper to make payroll. A new minimum wage was just enacted on Jan. 1 that raises our minimum wage for most jobs to $15.49 an hour.

It’s a 36 cents per hour increase, the result of a 2019 law that raised the minimum wage a bit each year until it reached $15 an hour and then tied it to the consumer price index every year after that. I objected at the time and still do. I believe it was too much, too fast, to be absorbed by the small business community.

When I look back at the kinds of jobs that historically were entry-level positions and look at my own teenage work experience, I don’t think what I did was worth this much. I worked hard. I learned quickly. But my first job as a janitor in a grocery store and subsequent jobs at fast food places like Wendy’s, McDonald’s, and Burger King were not exactly difficult.

If you were willing to pay attention and put in a little sweat, anyone right off the street could do it. These types of minimum wage jobs were normally reserved for teenagers who mostly needed to learn how to work, meaning how to show up every day, be on time, and be responsible. These jobs weren’t heavy lifting or brain surgery or requiring any particular skill.

When politicians who fought for the minimum wage law in 2019 spoke in terms of a couple earning minimum wage and not being able to raise children, it made me cringe. No one earning minimum wage could raise children, true, but no one earning minimum wage should be having children.

If one of the arguments in favor of today’s $15.49 minimum wage is that products are more expensive today, then consider my minimum wage jobs as a teenager in the 1980s.

According to usinflationcalculator.com, an item that cost $3.35 in the 1980s (New Jersey’s minimum wage throughout that decade) cost as high as $12.83 today to as low as $8.52. A far cry from $15.49.

Of course, when it comes to New Jersey politicians, they’re a far cry from common sense.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

Report a correction 👈