Asbury Park Press - Buono Calls for Voters to Pass Minimum Wage Hke

News Article

By Statehouse Bureau

State Sen. Barbara Buono, New Jersey's Democratic gubernatorial candidate, called for voters to approve a ballot measure that would raise the state's minimum wage by $1 an hour and blamed her opponent for making the referendum necessary in the first place.

Buono, appearing at a Statehouse news conference with a large number of political, union and women leaders to advocate for passing the minimum-wage referendum, said Gov. Chris Christie denied low-wage workers dignity by vetoing a bill that would have increased the base wage in New Jersey from $7.25 to $8.50 an hour and tied future hikes to the federal Consumer Price Index. The news conference was tied to Women's Equality Day, the anniversary of the signing of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

"By this governor vetoing the minimum wage, he has also vetoed the hopes and promises a better quality of life for a quarter of a million women in New Jersey," Buono said.

Christie conditionally vetoed the minimum-wage bill, objecting to the CPI tie-in. He instead called for a $1.25 an hour increase in the wage phased in over several years. Democrats in the Legislature then passed a resolution putting a measure on the November ballot to raise the wage and establish the CPI tie-in.

Women, Buono said, earn 78 cents for every dollar men earn in New Jersey.

A majority of low-wage earners are women, and a disproportionate number of them are minorities, she said.

Christie's stance
Kevin Roberts, a spokesman for the Christie campaign, said the governor was supporting a "responsible increase" in the minimum wage. He also supported the President Barack Obama's Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which strengthens protections for women seeking pay equity.

"Unfortunately, Barbara Buono and her colleagues in the Legislature have chosen to politicize and grandstand on both of these issues, rather than act on the governor's plans to bring New Jersey fair pay laws in line with federal law and his proposal to steadily increase the minimum wage for working families," Roberts said.

Roberts argued that the ball is actually in the Democrats' court when it comes to pay equity and the minimum wage.

"New Jersey is still waiting for Senator Buono and her colleagues to end the games and act," he said.

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