Minimum wage increase signed into law in Michigan

[ProSense]

March 29. 2006 6:59AM Minimum wage workers get a raiseGranholm signs bill to put the rate at $6.95 an hour.

TIM MARTIN
Associated Press Writer

LANSING -- If Shannon Faust sticks with her job at a Lansing day-care center, she'll get a raise in October.

Faust is one of tens of thousands of Michigan workers who stand to earn higher hourly pay after Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed legislation Tuesday boosting the minimum wage for the first time in nine years.

Michigan's minimum wage -- now $5.15 an hour -- will climb to $6.95 an hour in October. The law calls for the rate to rise to $7.15 an hour in July 2007 and to $7.40 an hour in July 2008.

"It's about time this happened," said Faust, who worked on the campaign to raise the minimum wage with a group called Michigan ACORN. "It will be significant for a lot of people."

more...

http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060329/News03/603290402

[Jayhawk Lib]

1. This is the way it should be...

The minimum wage rates should be set by the states and not the federal government. The cost of living and economic conditions vary from state to state and that particular state can best determine what the minimum wage should be for that area...

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. Which leaves sorry-ass red states (like mine) free to pay slave

wages. Employers are not going to increase wages unless they are forced to, and in places where the prevailing attitude is 'every man for himself' there would be no raises at all.

There should be a federal minimum, tied to the poverty index, that is adjusted annually for inflation. States would be free to have higher rates if they choose, but not lower.

The only fair way of doing it state to state is to have state minimums tied to poverty levels in each individual state. And that would mean 50 different bureaucracies running 50 independent evaluations, and doing it honestly - no fudging the poverty numbers to make themselves look good. That is, obviously, problematical. We've seen how well that works with handling welfare, state to state.

[Jayhawk Lib]

7. It is up to the citizens

of your state to change it. We have state elections as often as we do federal elections. When the citizens of your state get fed up with the way things are running they will make a change. That is the democratic way and I would not change it for any other system in the world.

I still say the minimum wage is a state issue not a federal issue.

[AzDar]

2. Truly astonishing that those entrusted with caring for our most precious

resource are paid the least.
I became a full-time Mom 3 years ago, and I have NEVER worked so hard.
5.15 an hour to care for many children?? They should easily be paid 3 times that amount...I mean, how could you retain quality workers at that wage? Oh, right.
This Country is so backward it is insane.

[Broadslidin]

3. Wal-Mart To Close Michigan Stores In Retaliatory Move.......!!

:yoiks:

[OneTwentyoNine]

5. And the State minimum wage in Kansas? Ohh...about $2.65 per hour

Welcome to a State totally controlled by Repukes. We have literally the lowest State MW in the nation. There are more jobs than you think that DO NOT have to pay Federally mandated MW. Of course all those workers make $15.00 or more per hour in tips.


Yeah right.......

[NicRic]

6. OH Happy Day !

A big $5.15 a hour ! A Woman with a few children would get more money by going on welfare ,and really would have no choice ,should she work some labor intense job ,just to pay for child care .Having some stanger raising her children ? Even if I was a single male ,instead of a married male with 2 young children , minimun wage would be a futile attempt at making a honest living that would make any sane person go insane ! And we wonder why peole crack and go crazy .I live in California ,and I believe the minimun wage is $7.25 per hour .With the cost of living in the San Francisco Bay area ,you would be homeless and living in your car with a income level of $7.25 per hour . I work in sales at $13.00 per hpur plus commision and I still cant get ahead ,live month to month, We put out $800 per month in health care alone. Rent for a two bedroom apt is around $1400 a month ,and thats outside the city ,in San Francisco you would pay that for a studio ! Our country under this President is quickly become a country of he haves and have nots .The middle class is diappearig on a daily basis ,as people beconme one or the other .The five beroom home my parents purchased in 1972 for $48,000 , are now selling for $900,000 plus ! Dad always said ,should have bought the whole block ! The first step in the area I live in is offering affordable housing to people ,once in awhile when a new track of homes are built the city willl make the builder offer several of the houses at below market price ,for those seven or so homes ,there will thousands of peope applying ,they do a lotto and some lucky family gets to buy a $600,000 house for $200.000 ,only catch is the city puts a limit on its value appreciatiion ,in other words if you go to sell after five years or so ,you cannot sell it for the market value, the city puts a percentage of appreciation thats not as big as market price .I still would jump on one of those new homes ,I just want a nice house for my family ,not looking to get rich off it ,just a decent place to live and raise my kids,still be able to have a life with out being a slave to a giant morgage payment ! I could keep going ,however I believe m RANT is long enough !

Good Luck to My Fellow Americans
NicRic