The year was 1985.

Sharon Brown had just graduated from MSU with a studio art degree in ceramics but, she admits now, she lacked the skills to find a high-paying job.

For the next five years, Brown made a few cents more than minimum wage at a series of jobs, doing everything from working in retail to sewing draperies to working for the federal government.

"I didn't have a car. I could only get a job on the bus line," Brown said. "I borrowed money. I went to the secondhand store."

Brown could not afford to live alone, so she paid $25 a week to live with her sister.

She eventually found a higher paying job in the automobile business and recently returned to MSU, where she is working toward a degree in audiology and speech sciences.

Even though Michigan is on the verge of raising the minimum wage, Brown said the new amount is still not enough for workers.

"People are making profits on the backs of people who don't have any skills," Brown said.

A new bill affecting low-income workers, local businesses and MSU students could raise the state's minimum wage, which has been set at $5.15 per hour for the last nine years.

Under three gradual pay increases, the minimum wage would increase to $6.95 in October before eventually ending up at $7.40 by July 2008.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm plans to sign the bill into a law, Granholm's spokeswoman Liz Boyd said.

"We have seen an increase in prices and inflation," Boyd said. "It is about time we give people a fair wage for a fair day's work."

The increase would impact the lives of about 400,000 Michigan workers with low-paying jobs, said Ken Fletcher, the legislative director for the state AFL-CIO, a labor union.

"They've had their wages frozen for the last nine years," Fletcher said, adding that 40 percent of minimum wage workers are the sole breadwinners for their families.

"If you put more money in the hands of the worker … it helps everyone in the community," Fletcher said.

The influx of dollars for minimum wage earners could boost Michigan's economy because the workers would have more to spend at local businesses, he said.

However, the increase could force some businesses to boost their prices in order to combat the cost of paying their workers more.

"We're in the business to make money," said Habib Jarwan, owner of Bell's Pizza, 1135 E. Grand River Ave. "I have to get it from somewhere."

He doesn't believe in a minimum wage because most businesses, including his, already pay their workers more than the current $5.15 per hour rate, he said.

Jarwan said he will eventually bump up pizza prices so he can still make a profit while paying his workers more. Payroll is the most expensive cost of running a small business, he said.

"Labor is a huge part of how most businesses figure out costs of making food," said Heather Patler-Holguin, manager of El Azteco, 225 Ann Street.

The restaurant might raise its prices 10 percent, but that wouldn't happen until fall, Patler-Holguin said.

"It's not something that's going to affect us right away," she said

Managers also might miss out on future raises, Patler-Holguin said.

Still, she said she supports the increase in minimum wage, even if the restaurant will have to compensate with slightly higher prices.

While the increase would put more money into the pockets of low-income workers, it would also benefit MSU student workers — even if they already make more than minimum wage.

The 2,500 MSU students who earn $6.15 per hour at their on-campus jobs would become eligible for an hourly pay increase, said MSU spokeswoman Deb Hammacher.

Hammacher said she does not know when the increase would occur, but the MSU Board of Trustees would have to approve the decision sometime before October when the new wage takes affect.

MSU already pays its employees more than minimum wage because it considers inflation, she said.

Students struggling to pay tuition and rent would welcome the rise in wages, said journalism sophomore Margo Cotter, who works as a cashier making above minimum wage at Campus Corner II, 501 E. Grand River Ave.

"It's hard to expect someone to live comfortably on minimum wage," Cotter said.

Lansing Community College student Tim Casey worked at a pizza restaurant in the mall for minimum wage during high school.

Now Casey works at 7-Eleven on the corner of Bogue Street and Grand River Avenue, making $8.50, or $3.35 above minimum wage, as a night cashier.

"I wish they would have raised it when I was younger," Casey said. "Obviously more money is better."