June 29, 2007

LANSING - In her weekly radio address, Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today reminded Michigan citizens that a higher state minimum wage will go into effect this Sunday, July 1, as the result of legislation she called for and signed into law last year.  The increase will result in a raise for more than half a million Michigan workers.

"What a great step forward for Michigan's families," Granholm said.  "This increase will put a little more money in the pockets of Michigan citizens who are working hard every day to pay for rent, to fill up their gas tanks, and to put food on the table for their kids."

The state minimum wage will rise from $6.95 to $7.15 an hour.  It will rise once again to $7.40 an hour on July 1, 2008, the third and final increase mandated by the new law.  Before Granholm signed the 2006 measure, the state minimum wage was $5.15 an hour, the federally-mandated minimum which had not been increased since 1997.

Granholm emphasized the importance of the minimum wage to families and Michigan's economy, noting that economists report that rising wages can stimulate economic activity throughout the state.

She also underscored that increasing the minimum wage is merely one aspect of her comprehensive plan to diversify and grow Michigan's economy.  Other critical aspects of the plan include the state's new earned income tax credit, higher standards in our public schools, measures to make college more affordable, such as the Michigan Promise scholarship, the 21st Century Jobs Fund to diversify Michigan's economy, and the continued effort to ensure universal access to affordable health care.

"In these tough economic times, we need to make smart decisions for Michigan's future," Granholm said.  "Our plan is smart, it is comprehensive, and we are seeing positive signs across the state as new companies choose Michigan as the place to grow and create jobs."

For more information about the increase, or other provisions of the minimum wage and overtime law, contact the Wage & Hour Division of the Department of Labor and Economic Growth at www.michigan.gov/wagehour or by calling 517-335-0400.

The governor's weekly radio address is released each Friday morning and may be heard on broadcast stations across the state through an affiliation with the Michigan Association of Broadcasters.  The address will also be available on the Governor's Web site on Mondays as a podcast for general distribution to personal MP3 players and home computers.

Broadcasters Note:  Governor Granholm's radio address can be accessed through Sunday evening exclusively through the Members Only page of the Michigan Association of Broadcasters Web site.

Publishers Note:  The text of today's address is attached.

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GOVERNOR JENNIFER M. GRANHOLM
June 29, 2007

Hello, this is Governor Jennifer Granholm.

On Sunday July 1, more than half a million Michigan workers are getting a raise! That's right, thanks to a law that I signed last year, the minimum wage has already gone from $5.15 an hour to $6.95 an hour.  And now, it's moving up to $7.15 an hour. 

What a great step forward for Michigan's working families.  This increase will put a little more money in the pockets of Michigan citizens who are working hard every day to pay rent, to fill up their gas tanks, and to put food on the table for their kids.

And, there's still one more increase coming - when it takes effect next year at this time, the total increase from $5.15 up to $7.40 an hour will mean that full time minimum wage workers have an additional $288 of income every month.

And, economists tell us that the dollars that these minimum wage workers earn go right back into the economy, so this is good for Michigan citizens across the board.

Raising the minimum wage is just one part of my comprehensive economic plan.

We're putting Michigan families first by creating the state's first-ever earned income tax credit, which puts more money in the pockets of working families.

We're fighting for fair trade that allows Michigan workers to compete on a level playing field with workers across the world.

We're diversifying Michigan's economy to create good-paying jobs with high wages that cannot be outsourced.

We're improving our schools and making college affordable and accessible for every Michigan student through the Michigan Promise scholarship.  And, we're working on creating universal access to affordable health care.

In these tough economic times, we need to make smart decisions for Michigan's future. Our plan is smart, it's comprehensive, and we're seeing positive signs across the state as new companies choose Michigan as the place to grow and create jobs.

We know that in Michigan we have the best workers in the world, and we have more engineering graduates every year than almost every other state, and we are the North American epicenter of automotive research and design.  We have so many good things happening.

We need to keep pumping up our economy and making smart decisions for the future - raising the minimum wage is one part of it, but we need to keep on investing in our kids' schools, investing our citizens' health care, investing to keep our communities safe.

Thank you for listening.