You have no business having children on NJ’s record minimum wage

We are a few short months away from another increase in New Jersey’s minimum wage for most jobs. This one will be historic in that it will finally go above the targeted $15 an hour Gov. Murphy promised in 2019. $15.13 to be exact.

Of course, politicians and bureaucrats are congratulating each other all around.

This is a proud moment for New Jersey as we prepare to become one of only a handful of states with a minimum wage above $15 an hour,” New Jersey Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo said.

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Gov. Murphy commented:

As we approach this long-awaited benchmark, I am hopeful that New Jersey workers will be able to improve their quality of life and secure a better future for their families in the middle class.

Families. Stop with the families.

As this inexorable march towards a $15 per hour minimum wage began we heard it over and over.

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Back in 2012 when pushing for a higher minimum wage, the late Sheila Oliver said:

Thousands of households in New Jersey are struggling to subsist on minimum wage jobs that do not allow them to support their families.

Yeah. No kidding.

This is when the minimum wage was still $7.25 an hour. This mantra about it being impossible to raise children when a working couple was each earning minimum wage was heard over and over during the campaign for $15. It was then, and still is, a ridiculous argument.

Even now when the minimum wage will ratchet up to $15.13 in January, you have no business having children if you did not first acquire a skill set to earn more than minimum wage. If you didn’t catch that, let me repeat it. You have no business reproducing if you can’t do anything worth more than minimum wage. Period.

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It’s called planning your life. Now I understand things happen in life that we never see coming. God knows I’ve suffered more than my share of disappointments. But having a baby is within your control. Having sex is within your control.

If you have not planned your life to acquire marketable skills to put you at least above minimum wage, then you can barely live on your own let alone even think about bringing another life into this tough world. So all these pundits need to spare me the worn-out speech about minimum wage and raising families.

Even a $15.13 minimum wage won’t be nearly enough to take care of a child. You know what it can buy though? A condom.

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