Minimum Wage Coalition Started

The effort to raise the minimum wage in Michigan got another push yesterday. Community organizing, social justice and labor groups have formed the Raise Michigan coalition to explore a petition drive to put a minimum wage proposal on the November 4 statewide ballot. Michigan’s minimum wage is $7.40 per hour while the federal level is $7.25. Workers who rely on tips for most of their earnings also will be included in the wage hike. Currently Michigan tip workers, like waitresses and bartenders, earn $2.65 per hour. Various bills have been introduced in the state legislature to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour for over three years while also raising the minimum wage for tipped employees and indexing the wage to inflation. But Governor Snyder and Republican legislative leaders have indicated that they will not take up the bills this year.