LANSING – State Representative Joel Sheltrown (D-West Branch) today hailed a victory in the fight to raise Michigan's minimum wage after the Michigan Senate voted to raise Michigan's long-dormant minimum wage to $7.40 an hour. Sheltrown urged his colleagues in the House to follow suit.
"Today's vote in the Senate is a huge victory for our young, working families who are trying to get ahead in life," Sheltrown said. "Increasing the minimum wage shows that hard work is valued in Michigan. I applaud the Senate for voting to increase the minimum wage, and I urge my fellow lawmakers in the House to do the same."
The Senate today passed a plan to raise Michigan's minimum wage to $7.40 an hour by July 2008, up from the current $5.15 an hour, which is the federal rate passed in 1997 and has been unchanged since.
"Paying our workers a fair wage is the right thing to do for our residents in the northern Michigan, and throughout the rest of the state," Sheltrown said. "Our residents who work hard for a living deserve to make more than poverty-level wages. Hard work deserves to be rewarded with a fair wage."
A higher minimum wage would help more than 400,000 people in Michigan – many of them the sole breadwinners of their families – and boost local economies. The value of the dollar is at its lowest since 1949. In addition, a 2004 study conducted by the Fiscal Policy Institute shows that small businesses in states with a minimum wage set above the federal level grew twice as fast as those in states with lower minimum wages.
Michigan would be the 17th state plus the District of Columbia to have a minimum wage higher than the federal rate.