foolmenot.comThe GR Press is right on… This minimum wage hike is not enough; hell, most of it will go to taxes. Here this poor guy is paying child support and all he gets is a meager buck or so increase. Michigan Republican legislators don’t care and that’s that!
Then there’s the girl who’s supporting her three kids on $7 an hour at Subway; crap, this should have happened a long time ago… Geez, I wonder why my Governor isn’t helping either one of these poor folks out with some kind of welfare assistance… Seems like they should qualify with the kids, and only make this little bit of money… Huh!
I think Brann’s Steak house owners are mean spirited. I’m glad the Republicans are on board with this; what nice people… I hope those Republicans don’t patronize Brann’s any more!!
Full article follows…
Saturday, March 11, 2006
By Ted Roelofs
The Grand Rapids Press
With child support and rent to pay, dishwasher Phil Sprague did not have to think twice.
Raise the minimum wage?
"You bet I could use it," said Sprague, 39, who earns $5.75 an hour scrubbing pots and pans at Brann's Steak House and Grille in Wyoming.
"They talk about people out there who are living paycheck to paycheck. I am living day to day," he said.
Under legislation passed with stunning speed this week in the state Senate, the minimum wage in Michigan would jump Oct. 1 to $6.95 an hour from $5.15.
It would rise to $7.15 in July 2007 and then $7.40 a year later -- a 44 percent boost from today's rate. The plan now moves to the House, where a vote could occur next week.
While an increase is hailed by grocery baggers, hotel maids and restaurant workers, critics said it could hurt small business and result in job losses.
That argument, however, has been suddenly overrun by public sentiment and a political calculus that forced Republican gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos to endorse a wage hike. A state poll found 74 percent in favor of an increase.
"The minimum wage hasn't been increased in Michigan for nine years and that is too long," DeVos said.
GOP officials hope quick approval by lawmakers will extinguish a Democratic effort to ask voters to amend the state Constitution to raise the wage to $6.85 an hour Jan. 1 and tie subsequent annual increases to the inflation rate.
Many political experts believe such a ballot issue would likely drive more Democrats to the polls, making it tougher for DeVos to defeat Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
Granholm seized the issue when she pledged in January to fight for a minimum-wage increase.
Even traditional opponents, such as the Michigan Restaurant Association, are coming out in favor of the Senate bill as an alternative to a constitutional amendment, which is described as "radical and extreme" by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce.
Lansing political analyst Bill Ballenger suspects Republican leaders in the capital, the DeVos campaign and the state chamber decided they needed to get behind a wage hike before the popular issue got away from them.
"I'm surprised they didn't do something like this a long time ago," he said.
Still, many small businesses fear a rise in the minimum wage will drive up costs and force tough choices.
Brann's President Tommy Brann said a wage hike likely would force him to get rid of some of the 700 workers at his nine restaurants or cut their hours.
Brann said the marketplace -- and competition -- dictate wages.
"We don't do it to be cruel or be bad persons. We are job creators," Brann said.
At a Subway sandwich shop, Amanda Middlemiss, 22, said she struggles to support her three children on $7 an hour.
"Especially with the cost of gas and how much it costs for heating. Everybody's struggling," she said.