The issue itself had been tabled in New Jersey by leading Democratic lawmakers last March who failed at an attempt to put the legislation on the ballot for a vote this coming November. The earliest that the issue can be voted on publicly is 2018. However, the candidates' differing opinions on the topic should spur some more discussions until then.

Guadagno believes the wage should not be a living wage but a starting wage, noting that if the minimum wage is raised to $15 (from $8.44 currently), New Jersey residents would be pumping their own gas as firms lay off workers or decline to hire gas attendants.

Additionally, more businesses, she noted, would start using or installing kiosks for retail orders instead of hiring at that wage.

Murphy, on the other hand, has backed raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, saying it would benefit nearly one million workers in New Jersey.

"Small employers drive the New Jersey economy," explained Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli and former New Jersey gubernatorial candidate at a live question-and-answer event hosted by the New Jersey Society of CPAs in May. He backs having New Jersey's minimum wage rise to $10 an hour, but not $15.

"Small businesses, in particular, are the ones that will suffer," added Jeffrey T. Kaszerman, government relations director at the NJCPA. "For those just starting out in business, this could push them to delay a key opportunity, consolidate or halt hiring altogether."

The issue could be a challenging one for New Jersey as well as other states.

"There are always business and financial implications to these types of government regulation of the private sector. As an example, I know of a small New Jersey company that places nursing and home health aides for Medicaid recipients. These employees are hourly and if the minimum wage was to be raised they will in all likelihood exit this part of their business leaving New Jersey residents with little alternatives. These are the unintended consequences of such over regulation. Elected officials should rethink this proposal" saysWalter J. Brasch, immediate past president of NJCPA and partner and chief business development officer at PFK O'Connor Davies.

Neighboring states, like New York, have already been moving in that direction with the minimum wage expected to be $15 an hour for large New York City employers next year and by 2021 for most other New York employers.

Minimum wage increases at the state level are continuing for 2018, with a few expected to take place in July for Washington D.C., Maryland and Oregon. Nineteen states started 2017 with higher minimum wages, according to a National Conference of State Legislatures article.

States, such as California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York and Vermont, pushed along their wage increases due to legislation, while other states such as New Jersey, Alaska, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio and South Dakota automatically increased their rates based on the cost of living, according to the NCSL article.

The stakes indeed are high for small businesses at the federal level as well. An immediate hike to $15 an hour could force businesses, such as retail shops or fast-food establishments, to not only pay higher wages to employees but charge higher prices for their products.

"When starting wages rise, these businesses pass the cost on to their customers and employees" according to the article "$15 Minimum Wages Will Substantially Raise Prices," a Heritage Foundation article published in January. Research from the American Journal of Public Health similarly notes that "on average, they find that a 10-percent increase in restaurant prices causes fast-food sales to drop 9.5 percent."

Minimum-wage increases do little to redistribute wealth, according to the NCSL article, as although some low-income families are likely to benefit from the higher wages, more low-income families would be hurt by the higher prices that would be charged.