fast food protest

McDonald's employee Connie Ogletree, 55, right, leads a group of fast food workers and supporters in a chant during a protest outside a Krispy Kreme store on May 15, 2014, in Atlanta. Calling for higher pay and the right to form a union without retaliation, fast-food chain workers in Atlanta protested Thursday as part of a wave of strikes and protests in 150 cities across the U.S. and 33 additional countries on six continents. (David Goldman | AP Photo)

(David Goldman)

TRENTON -- State Assembly Democrats are planning a push to raise New Jersey's minimum wage to $15 an hour, a nearly 80 percent increase from what the state has now.

Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson) and Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) on Wednesday announced the proposed hike as part of the chamber's anti-poverty agenda.

"This will be an integral component in our efforts to stop the decline in the middle class and lift working families out of poverty, Prieto said in a statement.

The proposed hike is the first concrete proposal to come out of the Assembly Democrat's new focus on poverty, which Prieto said was motivated by a report saying there are more New Jerseyans struggling to make ends meet today than in the past 50 years.

"When businesses fail to pay a living wage, government is forced to fill the gap," Wisniewski said. "Essentially, taxpayers are subsidizing these low-paying jobs and, in the process, suppressing wages for everyone else in the workforce... The American economy works best with a healthy middle class that has money in their pocket to spend."

Prieto and Wisniewski said they will introduce the bill Thursday. If passed into law, the change would take effect immediately. Neither the Democrats who control the Senate nor the Assembly have enough votes to override a gubernatorial veto.

Gov. Chris Christie expressed his opposition to the proposal through a spokeswoman Wednesday evening.

"Between nearly doubling the minimum wage and their effort to enshrine a $3 billion tax increase in the constitution, there is absolutely no end to what Democrats in the legislature will do to kill jobs, drive major businesses out of New Jersey and destroy an economy that is on the rebound," Christie spokeswoman Joelle Farrell said.

Christie in 2013 vetoed a minimum wage bill, which he said would hurt the economy. That prompted Democrats to seek the change through a constitutional amendment.

Voters agreed to amend the state constitution that year to increase the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.25 an hour, and then annual increases based on the Consumer Price Index. The wage floor went up another 13 cents in January 2015 and did not increase in 2016.

Prieto said inserting the regular increases into the constitution was "the best and most feasible thing we could to at the time," but "we now need to strive for better."

Employers will be disappointed and frustrated if the the legislature would impose another mandate on the cost of doing business in the state, said Michele Siekerka, president and CEO of the Business and Industry Association of New Jersey.

"Two years ago we did the minimum wage constitutional amendment. Businesses are just now adjusting to those changes. And now we come in and double down? It's not bad enough they are threatening a constitutional amendment to pay for public worker pensions?"

Last month, the Democratically-controlled legislature took the first step toward amending the constitution to require the state to annually contribute to the pension plan for government workers. This would be painful for business owners, especially the smaller ones who collectively supply the most jobs, Siekerka said.

"Let's not hit Main Street hard once again," she added.

In 2014, a bill stalled that would have phase in raises for waiters and other tipped workers from $2.13 an hour to an estimated $3.39 in the first year and $5.93 the following year.

Municipalities have moved on their own to raise the minimum wage, but those measures have run into legal challenges.

A spokesman for Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), Richard McGrath, said Sweeney "supports efforts to further raise the minimum wage" and looks forward to reviewing the legislation.

According to the National Employment Law Project, more than a dozen U.S. cities and states approved a $15 minimum wage last year. Fast food workers in New York will receive at least $15 an hour by 2018, and the rest of the state will follow suit by 2021.

The United Way of Northern New Jersey has estimated a single adult in New Jersey would need to earn $13.78 an hour to meet his or her basic needs, and $19.73 per hour "better food and shelter, plus modest savings."

The annual take-home pay for a full-time worker earning the current minimum wage is about $17,430. "That's just over $17,000 in a state in which it's quite common to pay upwards of $1,000, if not more, in rent, and where the cost of transportation keeps going up," said Analilia Mejia, executive director of NJ Working Families.

Minimum wage workers aren't just teenagers at McDonald's, she said, adding they're home health aids, day care workers and retail employees who "can't afford the goods that they're bagging for you."

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