Gov. Phil Murphy and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin said legislation to boost the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour could come this fall.

The Democratic lawmakers appeared at the Elijah’s Promise community kitchen in New Brunswick Thursday, to push for the higher wage.

New Jersey's current minimum wage is $8.60 and goes up automatically according to inflation rates.

Elijah’s Promise employee Damon Wimbley recently received a raise to $15.

“I worry less about having money for rent each month, whether or not I can afford to pay bills. Mentally it’s healthier for me,” Wimbley says.

Murphy says he wants the $15 wage to be phased in over time to avoid "sticker shock" for businesses.

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

The higher minimum wage remains an unfulfilled campaign promise for Murphy, who soon after winning election last year appeared with lawmakers to push for the higher wage.

Former Republican Gov. Chris Christie vetoed legislation to phase in the higher wage in 2016.

The owners of smaller businesses say that they are concerned about what the increase of minimum wage could do to their bottom line.

The owners of Minuteman Press, a small printing company in Edison, say that the only employee who is paid at the current minimum wage level is an intern.

“We'll have to do more with less. That’s how it’s going to be because there’s no way we can do double -- it’s almost the double of what the wage is right now,” says owner Suchitra Kamath.

Coughlin says that he will introduce a bill once he receives ideas after the Legislature goes into session next week.