New Jersey $15 Minimum Wage Idea Stirs Business Outcry (1)

New Jersey leaders say they’ve finally figured out how to phase in a $15 minimum wage, prompting a warning from business groups that it still could be too much, too soon.

“The simple economic reality which nobody seems to understand is that the small-business owner has relatively small profits and they can’t pay more labor costs,” Laurie Ehlbeck, state director for the National Federation of Independent Businesses in New Jersey, told Bloomberg Law. “It just might not be feasible.”

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D), Senate President Steve Sweeney, and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin jointly announced Jan. 17 they had ...