The Senate passed a bill last week which would incrementally increase Michigan's minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.40 per hour by July 2008.
Senate Bill 318 was passed March 9 by a unanimous vote. The bill's primary sponsor, Sen. Ray Basham, D-Taylor, said he hopes the bill will quickly become law.
If passed, the bill would increase the minimum wage to $6.95 beginning Oct. 1. It would then be increased to $7.15 July 1, 2007 and then to $7.40 July 1, 2008.
Basham said the bill was needed because the minimum wage has not been increased in nine years, meaning it has not kept up with increases in the cost of living.
Basham first introduced the bill 10 months ago. Support from voters received by the Michigan Needs a Raise Coalition spurred Republican legislators to move the bill forward, he said. Basham said the raise will help improve the economy because those receiving the increase will spend some of the additional money back into the economy.
Public support for the ballot proposal calling for minimum wage increases influenced the Legislature to address the minimum wage, said Ari Adler, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema.
"It certainly showed the Legislature that there is a feeling from the public that we should be looking at the minimum wage," Adler said. "We looked at it and actually raised it further than the ballot proposal would do."
However, the bill is not fair to all people, especially waiters and waitresses, said Luke Canfora, assistant to Mark Gaffney the president of Michigan AFL-CIO, which is a member of the Michigan Needs a Raise Coalition. Their ballot proposal addresses the issue of how to handle pay for workers who typically also receive gratuities as part of earnings. In addition, the bill fails to index the minimum wage to annual cost of living increases — a part of the ballot proposal, Canfora said.
The group will keep pushing to have its proposal on November's ballot, he said.
Adler said an automatic increase in the ballot proposal is problematic.
"(We are) trying to balance the need for those who are working for the minimum wage without hurting job providers," Adler said. "It can be a delicate balancing act."
