Source: Saiber Employment Law Alert

New Jersey’s new mandatory minimum wage requirement will be effective January 1, 2024.

For most employers, the 2024 minimum wage for compensating employees will be $15.13 per hour (up from $14.13 per hour in 2023). For tipped employees, the minimum cash wage the employer must pay is $5.26 per hour (no change from 2023), provided that the cash wage paid by the employer plus tips earned by the employee equals the $15.13 per hour minimum wage.

There are other exceptions to the $15.13 per hour general minimum wage requirement.  For example, employees of seasonal and small employers (fewer than six employees) will have their pay increased from $12.93 to $13.73 an hour. Agricultural workers will have their pay increased from $12.01 to $12.81, and direct care staff at long-term care facilities will receive a $1.00 increase in pay to $18.13 per hour.

The minimum wage increase which goes into effect on January 1, 2024, is the last of a series of incremental minimum wage increases that have been taking place pursuant to a law signed by Governor Murphy in 2019, which provided that the minimum wage would increase to at least $15.00 per hour on January 1, 2024.  Starting on January 1, 2025, wage increases will be tied to the consumer price index for all urban wage earners and clerical workers.  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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