LANSING – Business groups have long argued increasing the minimum wage forces employers to cut back on hiring, but the Michigan League for Public Policy said in a report released Monday that the increase would generate jobs.
The group estimates that increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour from the current $7.40 would mean $2,256 each annually for some 1 million workers, or $1.09 billion in additional economic activity.
The group said low-income workers tend to immediately spend any additional income they have, meaning those wages would flow back into the economy, generating some 4,600 new jobs.
The change also would allow those earning minimum wage to move out of poverty, the group said.
“No one who works hard should be forced to work for poverty wages, whether they are parents supporting young kids, or teenagers who are just starting their working lives,” Gilda Jacobs, president and CEO of the League, said in a statement announcing the review. “But this is exactly what we’re asking many minimum-wage workers to do – to put in their time at work and still remain poor.”
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