September 28, 2023

Top Stories This Week:

New Jersey’s Minimum Wage to Increase

This week, Governor Murphy announced the state’s minimum wage will be making a bigger increase than originally outlined in legislation passed in 2019. The minimum wage will be increasing to $15.13 on January 1st, 2024, exceeding the governor’s goal to get the state’s minimum wage to $15 by 2024. The extra increase was calculated in due to inflation. There continues to be an exception for small business and seasonal employers. Seasonal and small employers were given until 2026 to reach $15 per hour to lessen the impact on their businesses under the 2019 legislation. The minimum hourly wage for these employees will increase to $13.73/hour on Jan. 1, up from $12.93. “Small” employers are defined as those with fewer than six employees. Seasonal employers are those in which “not less than two thirds of the employers’ gross receipts were received in a continuous period of not more than 16 weeks.” This is not the last increase, the minimum wage will continue to increase every January based on the rate of inflation, and some are already calling for even larger increases to the minimum wage.

Reminder: Gas Tax Increase Sunday

We announced a few weeks ago that due to a decrease in total motor fuel consumption in the state over the last year, the state petroleum products gross receipts tax would increase this year by 0.9 cents per gallon on gasoline and diesel motor fuel. This rate increase is effective on Sunday, October 1st. There is nothing that you as retailers need to do, the change in tax will be automatically applied on invoices for fuel that you get delivered on or after October 1st. The total state and federal taxes on gasoline will be 60.7¢ and the total on diesel will be 73.9¢ per gallon.  

Gas Car Ban Update

Last Thursday, NJGCA and a variety of business groups testified to the DEP against their proposed regulation that would ban the sale of all new cars powered by gasoline or diesel in 2035 and require that around 40% of new cars in 2026 be EVs. Environmental groups that attended testified in favor, asking for the process to be sped up. Comments collected during the official public comment period are due in a few weeks, the public has sixty days to submit. We will have more details about how you can weigh in against this plan to the DEP if you would like in the future.

Oppose the EPA’s Proposed Light-Duty Tailpipe Emissions Rule

In addition to the Murphy administration’s campaign to ban gas cars, at the federal level, the Biden administration is looking to increase the emissions rules for all vehicles to a level that is so high that it may force motorists to switch to EVs, despite cost barriers and lack of charging infrastructure. Under this rule, two-thirds of all light-duty vehicles sold in the country must be all-electric by 2032. If you want to send an opposition letter to the EPA you can use this website, where they have pre-written letters or you can write a personalized one. 

Voter Registration

If you’re not registered to vote at your current address, we wanted to remind you that the voter registration deadline is October 17th, less than three weeks away. This is an important election year in New Jersey, all 120 seats in the legislature are on the ballot. Voter turnout is only expected to be about 25% so your vote is more important than ever in this election. As always, we will be mailing out our Voter Guide next month, check your mailbox for that important issue! You can use this link to check your registration status or update your info https://www.nj.gov/state/elections/voter-registration.shtml

Member Spotlight: Glenn Carnevale, Carnevale Gulf

We want to congratulate our longtime member Glenn Carnevale on his recent retirement after 47 years as a gas station owner and member of our association. He has been a very influential member of our association for a long time, he was 20 years old when he bought his station in 1976 and joined our association and was an active participant in all of our meetings from that time on. Glenn thanks NJGCA for always fighting for small business interests and always being available for advice, whether that be day-to-day business advice, or how to fix issues with the EPA, DEP, MVC or oil companies. Being part of a small business trade association is one of the smartest investments you can make!

Top Industry News:

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