LANSING – Press conferences were held in Lansing and Detroit on Wednesday by activist groups in an effort to draw support for HB 4554 , which would raise the minimum wage in Michigan to $10 an hour by 2016.
In Lansing, Danielle Atkinson, director of Mothering Justice, said that there is a need for the minimum wage to be raised. She said employees who work full-time at the minimum wage are still earning well below the poverty line, at about $15,392 a year.
Peter Ruark, senior policy analyst for the Michigan League for Public Policy, said that the “legends” behind raising the minimum wage are not true. He said raising the minimum wage has not been shown to get rid of jobs, nor does it only help teenagers, as 85 percent of employees earning minimum wage are 20 years old or older. Ruark also said raising the minimum wage would help more than one million Michigan workers.
“The minimum wage of $7.40 is worth a dollar less than when the law was passed in 2006,” said Ruark in a prepared statement. “Each year that goes by without an adjustment, it loses value.”
The plan proposed by HB 4554 would raise the minimum wage in increments, reaching $10 an hour by 2016. The bill also would index the minimum wage to the consumer price index for inflation, which is similar to what Ohio, Florida, Arizona and Colorado currently do, and would raise the minimum wage for tipped-based employees, those working in restaurants and bars, to $3 an hour by January 2014. Tipped-based employees currently receive $2.65 an hour.
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