Last week Phil Murphy made it clear that he is going to keep his campaign promise of a $15 per hour minimum wage. According to WHYY:

Murphy promised a $15 minimum wage during his campaign, and he has vowed again that he will make good on that promise.

“For the business community, we’ve got to be careful of the sticker shock. You can’t make that leap overnight,” he said. “So this has to be phased in over a series of years.”

Then, toward the end of the story comes the line of BS:

“Employees aren’t a cost item to be kept as low as possible. This is not goods or materials. They are what help businesses grow and succeed,” he said. “And when employees earn a livable wage, morale increases, and turnover decreases.”

And, why is that line a bunch of BS? How about because, as reported in this blog, Phil Murphy once tried to pay a professional with a master’s degree nothing, not one penny. That’s right, Phil Murphy wanted a sport scientist to come to his team as an unpaid intern. He certainly wasn’t concerned with practicing what he preached when it came to his soccer team.

This is how it was explained by the sports news website, Deadspin:

Sky Blue uses part-time staff to fill nearly every position. From trainers, to assistant coaches, to general manager Tony Novo, the team’s staff is paid part-time salaries for what amounts to full-time work. Former assistant coach David Hodgson was initially hired as a sport scientist for Sky Blue FC. “I got [connected with] Sky Blue via U.S. Soccer,” he told Deadspin, “who had mandated that every club needed to have a sports scientist on the books. I was 30 minutes away and U.S Soccer trusted me to do a good job.”

Originally, Hodgson said, the club wanted to bring him on as an unpaid intern. “They offered me no money,” he recalled, “and I’m like, ‘I’m 38, I don’t do internships with a master’s degree.’ U.S. soccer pushed them and they gave me $15,000. And that’s how that happened.”

Hodgson took over as interim head coach, alongside Grieg and goalkeeper coach Jill Loyden, after Sky Blue parted ways with Christy Holly in August of 2017. He returned as an assistant coach before being let go in June.

Hypocrite Phil Murphy did eventually get forced to pay $15,000 for a season that lasts 6 months, but that is less than the $15,600 a $15 per hour employee would have made.

The obvious question is why is a guy who wanted to pay nothing, and was eventually pressured to pay a professional with a master’s degree less than $15 per hour pushing for a $15 per hour minimum wage? The obvious answer is he’s a big hypocrite.

We’re going to keep calling Murphy out over his hypocrisy on this issue at The Bob & Steve Show because New Jersey’s mainstream press doesn’t care.