
advertisement The New Jersey Assembly voted Thursday to give the state's minimum wage employees a $1.25-per-hour raise, which would increase their weekly wage by $50 to $340, for full-time workers. Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, who sponsored the bill, said the increase would help thousands of impoverished families make ends meet and would jumpstart local economies. She rejected opponents' arguments that businesses couldn't afford the increase, saying it would not have the negative impact some people feared. "We are really, really, really putting the screws to poor people in the state of New Jersey," she said before the vote. "The reality is you can live nowhere in New Jersey earning the current minimum wage." The 46-33 vote occurred along party lines, with Democrats supporting the bill ...
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