Feb 9, 2012

Minimum-wage proposal in N.J. stirs debate, especially in farm sector

They’ll start showing up next month on farms across New Jersey. Thousands of seasonal workers will plant fields and trim trees, then tend and harvest crops during the spring and summer.

Up to 180 work at Joe Marino’s Sun Valley Orchards in Swedesboro, Gloucester County, and many – including migrant farm hands from Mexico – earn $7.25 an hour, the state and federal minimum wage.

They would see their paychecks increase under a proposal by Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver (D., Essex) to boost the state minimum rate to $8.50 and to tie it to the consumer price index, which measures the cost of living.

While no legislative action seems imminent, the proposed increase – which would give New Jersey the third-highest minimum wage in the nation – has stirred heated debate in Trenton as well as in the state’s agricultural community. The Phiadelphis Inquirer

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