NEWARK -- Today, Senator John Edwards joined with the National Employment Law Project (NELP), New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP), and allies from the Raise the Wage Campaign to call on the New Jersey Legislature to raise the state's minimum wage to at least $8.50 per hour, establish a strong minimum tip wage, and increase both automatically each year to keep up with the cost of living. The event was hosted by the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice at its headquarters. Prior to speaking, Senator Edwards participated in a roundtable discussion with over a dozen low-wage workers who shared their stories with him.

"I've heard from worker after worker who puts in long hours but still has a hard time getting by -- especially when the basics like gas and food are getting more and more expensive every day," said Senator Edwards. Speaking of his work around the country to eradicate poverty, Edwards said at a press conference, "This is the cause of my life, I'm going to fight for it with everything I've got. I think in a country as great as America, we can do something about 37 million of our own people who wake up everyday worried about surviving."

When state lawmakers last raised the minimum wage in 2005, they created a Minimum Wage Advisory Commission, which last December proposed that the minimum wage should be increased to $8.25 per hour with automatic cost-of-living adjustments each year in the future. The Commission called the current $7.15 wage insufficient to support a family in New Jersey and found that the minimum wage's purchasing power has dropped even since October 2006, when the current state minimum wage took effect.

But as Jon Shure, president of New Jersey Policy Perspective, pointed out, "The Legislature has gone home and nothing happened. Unfortunately, the cost of living doesn't take a vacation. Working people don't get time off from the struggle to get by in New Jersey."

"New Jersey is also one of just two states that provide no minimum wage at all for tipped workers," said Raj Nayak, an attorney at the National Employment Law Project. "As we raise the minimum wage, we need to close this unfair loophole, which leaves thousands of New Jersey's workers in poverty."

If it implemented the Advisory Commission's recommendations, New Jersey would be the eleventh state in the nation to provide automatic annual cost-of-living increases -- a key reform that prevents the minimum wage from eroding each year. It would also have one of the highest minimum wages in the country. "New Jersey has the opportunity to be a national leader, helping build momentum for finally restoring the federal minimum wage to its historic level," explained Paul Sonn, legal co-director of the National Employment Law Project.

NELP and NJPP are helping lead New Jersey's Raise the Wage Campaign, a growing coalition of over 20 advocacy groups, community organizations, and worker centers. Senator Edwards attended the event in his capacity as chair of the Half in Ten Campaign, which seeks to reduce poverty in the United States by 50 percent within 10 years.

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