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Minimum Wage Increase Signed Into Law

Melissa Benmark
/
WKAR

Gongwer News Service Editor Zach Gorchow says Republicans feared a ballot proposal to boost the minimum wage of $10.10 an hour. 

Gorchow told WMUK's Gordon Evans that conservatives and business groups were especially concerned about a provision in the ballot proposal that would ended the lower minimum wage for "tipped workers" such as waiters and waitresses. Gorchow says the Republican ultimately decided that the legislation was preferable to the ballot proposal. 

The group Raise Michigan has said it still plans to turn in petition signatures today that would put the proposal on the November ballot. Gorchow says there are questions about whether the law signed yesterday nullifies the ballot initiative. Gorchow says legal challenges may ultimately decide whether the proposal ends up on the ballot. And he says if it is on the ballot and passes, more legal challenges can be expected.

Gorchow says yesterday was a good moment for Democrat Mark Schauer's campaign for governor. The former Congressman and state lawmaker from Battle Creek proposed a similar increase in the minimum wage last year.  Until yesterday, Governor Rick Snyder had been cool to raising the state's minimum wage. 

Gordon Evans became WMUK's Content Director in 2019 after more than 20 years as an anchor, host and reporter. A 1990 graduate of Michigan State, he began work at WMUK in 1996.