DETROIT/LANSING – Michigan workers and community leaders joined a nationwide call to action for raising the minimum wage this week. 

“It seems like everything keeps getting more expensive, but my pay just stays the same,” said Sam Johnson, a local fast food worker and member of Michigan United. 

“A couple dollars more an hour will help me take care of my family the way they deserve to be taken care of.  Anyone, like me, who is working this hard for every dollar, really appreciates the difference that extra pay makes,” he continued.

County Commissioner David Woodward (D-Royal Oak) leads a press conference with low wage workers and community leaders in Detroit.

Michigan’s minimum wage has been $7.40 an hour for five years, or $15,392 a year for a full-time, 40-hour-a-week, worker.  

Nationally, the minimum wage has been $7.25 for seven years now.  “The minimum wage of $7.40 is worth a dollar less than when the law was passed in 2006,” said Peter Ruark, Senior Policy Analyst with the Michigan League for Public Policy.  

“Each year that goes by, without an adjustment, it loses value.  At the current level, it will not bring a parent with one child out of poverty, even if that parent works fulltime.  Michigan has a moral obligation to ensure that those who work hard do not remain in poverty. We need to raise the minimum wage with an annual adjustment, so that low-income working families can stay above water and pay their bills,” Ruark concluded.  

Johnson, Ruark and other speakers called for the passage of legislation (House Bill 4554) that has been introduced by State Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit).  

One key provision in the legislation includes raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour by 2016.