As with most every state in the union, New Jersey will be seeing some new laws taking effect in the new year. Look at the rundown below and consider them if you dare…
I’ll help, by being my usual snarky self…
1.
First up is the minimum wage increase, rising from $0.36 to $15.49 per hour for most employees.
When NJ Gov. Phil Murphy took office back in 2018, our minimum wage was $8.60 per hour, this new increase is part of a scheduled hike Murphy signed into a bill the year after he came into office.
Does this mean now I can ignore all the tip jars I see at just about every cashier these days?
2.
In March 2024, Gov. Murphy signed affordable housing legislation, supporting the state’s towns to meet their affordable housing obligations. A compliance period this year will see the Department of Community Affairs publishing “non-binding calculations of municipalities’ current and prospective need for affordable housing using a formula based on prior court decisions.”
Again, lots of semi-double talk. Does this mean we will see more affordable housing popping up? And how does this affect NJ taxpayers? Words like ‘affordable’ when used in this context usually means money is coming from somewhere to offset expenses to make things more affordable, but that money has to come from somewhere to cut these costs.
3.
Sexual assault victims will now be able to request to receive “notification of certain developments” connected to a case they file. Again, wording is significant here, as it always in laws, the key one here being ‘certain’ which is not to say ‘all’ developments can be received by victims. And I have to ask…who determines which ones can be seen by the victims?
4.
Gym memberships will become easier to cancel in our Garden State. Good news? Have you ever tried to get out of a gym membership and followed how the gym will ding your credit as you try to extricate yourself and they claim you still owe them a few months?
4.
This last one surely strikes me as odd, but as of 2025, New Jersey’s Board of Education (a group that has certainly enjoyed some controversy over the years) “shall not require a candidate seeking any instructional certificate, except in the case of a limited certificate of eligibility or a limited certificate of eligibility with advanced standing established pursuant to P.L. 2021, c. 224 (C.18A:26-2b et seq.), to complete a Commissioner of Education-approved test of basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills including, but not limited to, the Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators test, in order to obtain an instructional certificate.
I included the exact bill’s wording above because I had to read it a few times. So, this means that the NJBoE will not require the mentioned candidates to complete an approved test for basic reading, writing, and mathematic skills.
This Act 1669, signed by Murphy in June 2024 is attempt to combat the state’s teacher shortage. New York eliminated its basic literacy test for teachers in 2017 (good move, who cares about reading, really?), citing the need for diversity and inclusivity in education (although I don’t know where those two concerns play into basic skills) while California and Arizona have ‘fast-track’ credentialing for sub teachers and removed exam requirements in the need for teachers post the pandemic.
Really, do we care any way if our kids are getting a good education? Wouldn’t it be better to have newer generations leaving school as dumb as possible so they can be controlled all the better by social media?
Sorry, I digress…
I know none of the above is as simple as I’m making it sound. And I’m trying mostly to have a bit of fun here. But there come ripple effects to any new law passed, even when it seems like something enacted that will bring good changes to our lives. It comes down to that ‘read the small print’ warning and all of us looking deeply all the time into what the folks running stuff are doing, because mostly folks do what they do to serve themselves first…and yes, to make our children dumber.
But I digress…
Anyway, there’s some of the stuff coming our way for 2025. Happy New Year everybody!
