Gopal said he has discussed his proposals with Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester), who has been receptive, but hasn’t yet committed to moving them. | AP Photo Lawmaker seeks safeguards to counter ‘negative consequences’ of minimum wage law

State Sen. Vin Gopal plans to introduce a package of three bills Thursday he says would help blunt any “negative consequences“ of New Jersey’s newly enacted $15 minimum wage law.

The bills would allow the state to suspend scheduled increases in the minimum wage during an economic downturn, grant tax credits to small businesses to help offset the costs of the higher hourly wage and create a task force to annually review the impact the new law is having on businesses and the labor force.


“I’m hopeful these bill can get bipartisan support, and we can have a conversation of how to help some of New Jersey’s most vulnerable small businesses,” Gopal (D-Monmouth) said in an interview.

It’s too soon to know whether any of the bills will gain traction in the Democrat-controlled Legislature. Gopal said he has discussed his proposals with Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester), who has been receptive, but hasn’t yet committed to moving them.

Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation last month that will gradually raise New Jersey's minimum wage to $15 an hour for most workers by 2024. Under the new law, the current $8.85 statewide minimum wage will rise to $10 an hour on July 1, 2019, and to $11 on Jan. 1, 2020. It will then increase by $1 an hour every Jan. 1 until reaching $15 on Jan. 1, 2024.

Some sectors of the workforce, such as farmworkers, seasonal workers and employees at small businesses, will have to wait longer to reach $15.

The first bill Gopal plans to introduce would allow the state to temporarily suspend the scheduled increases in the event of an economic downturn. Other states like California that have enacted a $15 minimum wage have included similar provisions in their laws.

Business groups lobbied to include the provision in New Jersey’s law and lawmakers considered the idea during negotiations, but it was never added to the final bill.

Under Gopal’s proposal, an increase could be suspended for two reasons — a drop in the state’s employment rate, retails sales and tax receipts over a one-year period or if total state revenues drop by 2 percent or more in one fiscal year. Suspension of increases would last until those losses in revenue are recouped, he said.

“By not having an off ramp, I think New Jersey is potentially being reckless,” Gopal said.

The New Jersey Business & Industry Association has said the ability to pause the automatic increases hikes is “critical.”

“We need a law that requires an economic analysis that would enable the state to suspend a scheduled rate hike if circumstances warrant it,” Michael Wallace, NJBIA‘s vice president of government affairs, wrote for the March edition for the group’s magazine. “Without it, many businesses would not be able to weather another national recession or recover economically after a major storm like Superstorm Sandy.”

Another bill would establish an 11-member task force to examine annually the impact of the minimum wage law. Members would include administration officials, business representatives and one person nominated by the New Jersey State AFL-CIO.

Gopal said it’s important to find out if New Jersey is losing any small businesses or seeing a reduction in total labor hours, and to determine how different regions of the state are faring under the new law.

“There’s no way for sure to know how the law is going to be effective, so by having an annual study it will help us adjust and identify any negative consequences,” he said.

The final bill would create three tax credits: one for businesses that are less than a year old and have 10 or fewer employees, another for small businesses that offer health insurance to their employees and one for businesses with three or fewer employees that create new positions. The credit would be for each new position added, up to nine employees.

When the minimum wage bill cleared the Legislature, Sweeney said he wanted to consider tax credit legislation to help mitigate any negative repercussions a higher wage would have on smaller businesses.

Gopal said would work with the administration to determine the value for these incentives.