Lansing - For workers like Jean Boudrie, who earn minimum wage, trying to live off $5.15 per hour is difficult.
"I love my job, but it's impossible to exist on minimum wage," Boudrie said as she spoke to a rallying crowd at the Capitol on Wednesday.
2004 Democratic vice presidential candidate and Sen. John Edwards spoke to a crowd of about 1,100 who were rallying for legislation that would increase the minimum wage.
"Congress is not doing what it's supposed to do to raise minimum wage," Edwards said. "It is a federal issue, but Republicans are not doing anything. They're thwarting the will of the American people."
Some Republicans in the Michigan Legislature said they feel that raising the minimum wage won't be effective.
"The legislation that the Democrats have posed won't help the people," said Matt Resch, spokesman for House Speaker Craig DeRoche, R-Novi. "Employers will lay off workers because they'll have to pay them more."
Increasing minimum wage might also hurt businesses in Michigan, some Republicans said.
"These are the businesses that are providing many entry-level jobs that are available," said Ari Adler, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema, R-Wyoming.
Legislation that would increase minimum wage has been sitting in the House and Senate since March. One of the bills would raise minimum wage to $7.15, but if there is no activity, a proposal to raise minimum wage might be on the upcoming ballot, said Mark Gaffney, president of the Michigan State American Federation of Labor and the Michigan Congress of Industrial Organizations.
"We are headed to the ballot in 2006," he said. "The initiative has already started."
But Republicans in the Legislature are finding other ways to deal with wage rates.
"What we are working to do is reform the economy to get it moving again so that they can get paid higher wages," Resch said.
MSU students also came to support the effort in raising minimum wage.
"Michigan has an incredible workforce, and if you don't give them the wage, how are they supposed to support their families?" said John VanDeventer, social relations junior and member of MSU's Labor Caucus.
Although Chris Kettler, the kitchen manager at The Parlor on Campus, 321 E. Grand River Ave., experienced what it was like to make minimum wage, he knows raising it might put a strain on businesses in the area.
"If they raise it to $7, essentially we have to give everyone a raise," he said. "It would decrease the profitability of the restaurant, and it would put a strain on the business."
Raising minimum wage to $7.15 might directly benefit more than 460,000 workers in the Michigan, according to a statement released by the House of Representatives.
Mara S. Deutch can be reached at deutchma@msu.edu.
