Yesterday, two major legislative goals of the New Jersey State AFL-CIO, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and reforming the state’s Paid Family Leave program, were passed by both houses of the state legislature.
Full vote tallies on these bills are linked below.
The minimum wage bills (A-15: Coughlin / S-15: Sweeney) passed the Assembly by a vote of 52-25-0 and the Senate by a vote of 23-16, mostly along party lines with Democrats voting “Yes” and Republicans voting “No.” The only exceptions were Democratic Senators Gopal (D-11) and Andrzejczak (D-1) and Assemblymen Land (D-1) and Milam (D-1) voting against raising the minimum wage.
Paid Family Leave Reform legislation (S-2528: Sweeney / Diegnan / Ruiz & A-3975: Quijano / Giblin / Downey) passed the Assembly by a vote of 53-21-2 and the Senate by a vote of 26-12. The bill would:
- Extend the paid leave period from 6 weeks to 12 weeks
- Increase the benefit amount from two-thirds of a claimant’s average weekly wage to 70 percent of that wage
- Increase the maximum income threshold and expand job protection to businesses with 30 employees or more
- The current protection level is 50 employees
Additional bills supported by the NJ State AFL-CIO that advanced today were:
- Commuter Tax Credit (S-1567: Weinberg): Passed the Senate by a vote of 23-13. A-2425 (Benson / Giblin) passed the Assembly by a vote of 62-12-2.
- Amends the Custom Fabrication Prevailing Wage Requirement Law (A-3964: Murphy / Houghtaling): Passed the Assembly by a vote of 69-4-1.
- Panic Buttons for Hotel Workers to Prevent Sexual Assault (S-2986: Weinberg / Greenstein): Passed the Senate unanimously.
Thank you to all the affiliates that were in Trenton yesterday continuing to push for the passage of these important pro-worker pieces of legislation.