When it comes to the subject of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, the gulf between the governors of New Jersey and New York is much wider than the Hudson River.

On Tuesday, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey reminded low-wage workers of the breadth of that divide when he vetoed a bill that would have raised his state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour over five years. Had Mr. Christie signed the legislation, New Jersey would have joined New York and California as the only states with plans to lift lowest wages so high.

Instead, he appeared at a grocery store in Pennington, N.J., and explained his opposition to the measure, which he called a “really radical increase” that “would trigger an escalation of wages that will make doing business in New Jersey unaffordable.”

Statements like those place Mr. Christie, a Republican, near the conservative end of the political spectrum on the subject. Even the main voice of big business in the state, the New Jersey Business & Industry Association, said its opposition was to the pace of the increases, which it called “too much, too fast.”