Michigan lawmakers approve minimum-wage increase to $9.25 per hour

[Purveyor]

5. Done: Snyder Signs Minimum Wage Hike To $9.25; Workers May See Raise By Sept. 1

LANSING — It took all day to reach a compromise on raising the minimum wage to $9.25 per hour. But once a deal was reached, it passed both the House and the Senate and was signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder in less than one hour.

Michigan’s low-wage workers could see their pay scale start to increase as early as Sept. 1. The wage will gradually increase to $9.25 per hour by 2018, and it would be linked to the rate of inflation in Midwestern states under a compromise bill that received final passage in the House by a 76-34 vote and by a 24-12 margin in the Senate.

“It’s great to see success like this in the Legislature,” said Snyder. “This was a great exercise in bipartisanship.”

The quick passage came so the bill can become law before a group pushing for a $10.10 minimum wage turns in its signatures to get that rate on the November ballot. The Raise Michigan coalitions, which spearheaded the petition drive, still plans to turn more than 300,000 signatures into the Secretary of State on Wednesday. But the petitions become moot because the law the initiative is trying to change was repealed by the Legislature today.

“I’m going to support this with a heavy heart. I don’t believe the government has a place in adjusting wages in our society,” said state Rep. Pete Pettalia, R-Presque Isle. “But the alternative is terrible. Proposals before us would lose many more jobs in northern Michigan.”

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http://www.freep.com/article/20140527/NEWS06/305270078/Snyder-signs-minimum-wage-hike-9-25-workers-may-see-raise-by-Sept-1