I think the effects of the minimum wage increase are already apparent. Go to any supermarket, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, etc. There are very few cashiers anymore, and most lines are self check-out. In the department stores like Sears, Boscov’s, Macy’s, try to find a sales person or cashier. Those jobs were eliminated, in my opinion, due to the wage increase. And if that is in fact the case, what did we accomplish by raising the rate?
While it is true, you can not live on the minimum wage alone, certainly not in New Jersey, it did provide a source of income for students, both high school and college, and retired people supplementing their pension. So now, most of those people lost their jobs, and we have to scan and bag our own purchases. Did anyone really think that if the wage increased everyone would just get a raise and keep their jobs? Not every employer has the financial resources like Amazon, or Comcast who pay their employees a good wage and just passes it on to the consumers. There is no quick fix, or easy solution to this issue. Only time will tell what the long-range effects will be. But you can count on it costing all of us more money.
Joe Knecht
