In our Spotlight on Business report tonight.

Minimum wage workers got a raise for the new year.

A 36 cent bump that puts the rate at $15.49 an hour.

Part of a years long ramp up aligning the state minimum wage with any increases in the cost of living.

Now, though, there's a new push to boost the wage further up to 20 bucks an hour, following the likes of California and Seattle, Washington.

But as Raven Santana reports, employers and lobbying groups argue that move will stunt job growth and make it harder to do business here.

We want to ensure that everyone who works a full, you know, full day's work, gets the, gets the benefit of being able to live in the state and can afford to live in the state that they work in.

Jersey ring in the new year with a new minimum wage starting yesterday, most employees will be paid $15.49 an hour.

The 36 cent increase is part of a scheduled hike from a 2019 bill that Governor Murphy signed.

Back in 2018, when the state's minimum wage was just $8.60 an hour.

However, under the law, seasonal and small business employees won't see the same increase until 2028.

Those employees wages rose from $13.73 an hour to $14.53 an hour.

Everybody not just, you know, the folks in most jobs that everybody, including seasonal small employers, agriculture employers, tipped employers that they're all paying the same fair based wage for everybody.

While the adjustment is an improvement.

Senior policy analyst for the Nonpartizan New Jersey Policy Perspective, Peter Chen, says $15.49 isn't enough.

Chen is advocating for a new push to increase a wage to $20 an hour.

You still have high poverty rates, in part because those workers at the low end of the scale are not earning enough to, to to have the kind of meaningful life and good life that we want people to have instead of having to scrounge to make ends meet and work that second job.

And, you know, you know, decide whether to pay the electric bill or the, you know, the water bill this month.

If you look at some of the living wage calculations, the estimate is that we should have, you know, for a family with, of two, adults and two children.

The living wage is in the vicinity of about $30.19, and per person.

Pearl Jane is a professor of finance and economics at Rutgers Business School.

Jane explained why increasing the minimum wage to $20 has worked in other states, and how not increasing has a negative impact on the economy.

Self-serve lines have gone up.

Whole foods is using that.

The other thing is that, you know, labor quality.

Also, my diminish, you know, now as opposed to getting an adult who is basically, you know, more experienced as a teenager who has got less experience, you know, so the adult might, might want higher wages.

Think of minimum wage as an entry point and not as, you know, your wage forever.

Michelle Siekerka president and CEO of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, couldn't disagree more with those in support of increasing the minimum wage to $20.

The economy's a little fragile right now.

And we're still teetering on on inflation, right.

It is very expensive to run a business here in the state of New Jersey.

We want to see jobs continue to grow.

We don't want to see jobs go away.

And also, we want to see the value of jobs and what people get in their employment to grow.

So we don't want to see benefits be cut short or time off, be cut short or anything like that.

Not many years ago, people thought $15 an hour was outrageous and unattainable.

And now that's almost a floor, in many places around here.

In regards to the other entities who are against any kind of increase, the minimum wage.

We've heard the same thing time and time again.

The minimum wage is about to be increased.

The sky is falling.

Commissioner for the new Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Robert Asaro-Angelo argued that the wage increase has and will continue to help Jersey's small businesses.

And amazingly, the smallest businesses those with five employees or less, the mom and pops have had the biggest increase in new Jersey in the past five years, over 30%.

All parties that I spoke with agree on one thing.

Only time will tell how the new wage increases will impact Jersey's employees and employers.

For NJ Spotlight News on Ravens, Santana.