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Senate President Steve Sweeney and U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross each announced plans Tuesday during a news conference in Trenton to sponsor state and federal bills that aim to hike New Jersey’s minimum wage to $15 per hour.

The plans come nearly a week after Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Secaucus) and Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville) announced a similar agenda calling for a $15 per hour minimum wage.

Both Sweeney (D-West Deptford) and Norcross (D-Cherry Hill) are calling for a steady increase to be phased in over a period of several years.

Sweeney’s bill would raise the state minimum wage, currently at $8.38 per hour, to $9 per hour by year’s end. The wage would then increase by $1 yearly until it reaches $15 per hour.

“I believe the best social program is a fair-paying job,” Sweeney said. “The fact is, the minimum wage, both on the federal level and here in New Jersey, doesn’t allow full-time workers to avoid living at the poverty level. Responsibly raising the wage to $15 per hour will not only provide fair pay for a fair day’s work, it will also lower the burden on the state and federal governments to provide assistance.”

Under the measure supported by Norcross, the federal minimum wage, currently at $7.25 per hour, would climb to $8 by 2017 and then similarly increase by $1 each year until the $15 per hour threshold is met.

“Raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour is the right thing to do, and phasing in the increase is the responsible way to do it,” Norcross said. “No full-time working family should be living in poverty. This will give millions of people across our state and country a fighting chance to improve their lives and provide for their families.”

Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald (D-Voorhees) plans to sponsor Sweeney’s bill in the Assembly.

“The American dream is prefaced on the notion that a full-time job allows a worker to live a healthy, fulfilling life, and to better their child’s future,” said Greenwald. “But the minimum wage has never had as little buying power as it does now. Raising the wage brings the economic scales closer to balance and gives the economy a boost. I encourage my colleagues in the Assembly and Senate to join us in this effort.”

New Jersey’s current minimum wage and all future increases and decreases were constitutionally tied to the consumer price index through a voter referendum passed in 2013.

Last week, following the initial call for a $15 minimum wage by Prieto and Wisniewski, business groups balked at the idea of not just the proposed wage itself, but at the idea of having to already reconsider a constitutional amendment on the matter.

On the federal level, President Barack Obama has been unsuccessful in previous attempts at calling for a $10.10 per hour minimum wage.