New Jersey’s new mandatory minimum wage requirement will be effective January 1, 2025.
For most employers, the 2025 minimum wage for compensating employees will increase by $0.36 to $15.49 per hour (up from $15.13 per hour in 2024). For tipped employees, the minimum cash wage the employer must pay is $5.62 per hour (up from $5.26 per hour in 2024), with the maximum tip credit employers are able to claim remaining at $9.87. If the minimum cash wage plus an employee’s tips do not equal at least the state minimum wage, then the employer must pay the employee the difference.
As in years past, there are other exceptions to the $15.49 per hour general minimum wage requirement. For example, employees of seasonal and small employers (fewer than six employees) will have their pay increased from $13.73 to $14.53 an hour. Agricultural workers will have their pay increased from $12.81 to $13.40, and direct care staff at long-term care facilities will receive a $0.36 increase in pay to $18.49 per hour.
The minimum wage increase goes into effect on January 1, 2025. The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development sets the minimum wage for the coming year based on any increase in Consumer Price Index (CPI) data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2019, Governor Murphy signed into law a series of incremental minimum wage increases that would increase wages to at least $15.00 per hour on January 1, 2024. Saiber LLC discussed the law, which amended the New Jersey Wage and Hour law, in a February 7, 2019 alert available here.
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