The Democrat-controlled state Legislature on Thursday gave approval to an historic increase in New Jersey’s minimum wage to $15 an hour over five years, with a $1.15 raise coming this July.

The votes seal the deal reached earlier this month by Gov. Phil Murphy, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney and state Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin — all Democrats — on a bill to boost the Garden State’s minimum wage by 70 percent for most workers while putting agricultural, seasonal and small business employees on a slower path to $15.

The bill passed the Assembly 52-25 and the Senate 23-16 on Thursday.

Murphy said he will sign the bill Monday, putting the trio of Democrats within striking distance of a major progressive policy achievement.

“History has shown us that raising the minimum wage is actually good for the business community, it’s good for New Jersey, and most importantly it’s good for the people that benefit from it,” Coughlin, D-Middlesex, said before the Assembly vote.

Under the bill, the minimum wage for most workers would increase to $10 an hour on July 1, to $11 on Jan. 1, 2020, $12 an hour on Jan. 1, 2021, $13 in 2022, $14 in 2023 and $15 in 2024.

New Jersey Policy Perspective, a liberal Trenton think tank, estimated more than 1 million workers will benefit from the wage hike. But about 10 percent of those employees will be put on a slower path.

Seasonal workers and workers at businesses that employ five or fewer employees won’t reach $15 an hour until 2026. Farm workers will hit $12.50 in 2024, after which it would be left up to state officials in the executive branch whether to keep going to $15 an hour by 2027.

The Garden State will join Washington D.C., which is en route to a $15 minimum wage in 2020, California, which will get there in 2022, and Massachusetts, which reaches $15 in 2023. Employers with more than 10 employees are already required to pay at least $15 in New York City and smaller businesses will join them at the end of this year. Counties downstate have a reprieve until 2021.

Republican lawmakers balked at the bill that they said will put too much stress on small businesses, forcing them to raise prices, cut hours, slash benefits or let employees go. State Sen. Bob Singer, R-Ocean, warned the increase would hasten moves toward automation and Sen. Gerald Cardinale, R-Bergen, said rising prices would squeeze seniors living on fixed incomes.

Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick, R-Union, said it would cut unskilled teenagers looking for their first job out of the labor force. A previous version of the bill carved out teenagers, who put up a fight to be included in the standard minimum wage.

It’s not that small business owners don’t have big hearts and want to pay their employees more, Bramnick said. “They simply don’t have the wallets.”

Business lobbyists had pressed Democrats to attach an emergency lever to the bill that would allow the state to pause the scheduled wage hikes in the event of an economic downturn and to carve out larger groups of workers.

“With today’s passage, the urgent concerns of this community have not been heard,” Michele Siekerka, president of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, said in a statement.

Labor advocates have argued the current minimum wage of $8.85 is too little to afford even basic needs in New Jersey, with someone working 40 hours a week at the current minimum wage, $8.85 an hour, earning $354 a week, or $18,408 a year. At $15 an hour, that same worker will earn $600 a week and $31,200 a year.

New Jersey has one of the highest median incomes in the country, but one in 10 residents live under the federal poverty line, which measures only extreme poverty.

Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said he would revisit the legislation if the higher wages push workers out of eligibility for safety net programs, like rent and child care subsidies.

“If we made mistakes, we’ll address the mistakes,” he said. “But raising people out of poverty is not a mistake.”

The Democratic proposal also creates a training wage which would allow employers to pay new employees a sub-minimum wage — but no less than 90 percent of the minimum wage — for their first 120 hours of work.

It also raises the tipped wage from $2.13 an hour to $5.13 an hour. That wage, combined with a worker’s tips, must equal the standard hourly minimum.

And the bill allows up to $10 million in tax credits annually for businesses that hire workers with disabilities.

Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.