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The Legislature agreed Wednesday to increase the state’s $3.35-per-hour minimum wage, which hasn’t risen in 16 years.
Competing bills passed by the Senate and the House — one sponsored by a Republican and one by a Democrat — would raise the state minimum wage, first to $4.75 an hour and then to $5.15 an hour.
The hikes would apply only to the roughly 100,000 employees of companies that do no out-of-state business and gross under $500,000 a year, and mirror recent increases in the federal rate that apply to all other workers.
Aslo, Senate Republicans plan to introduce a bill that would exempt all tips from state taxes. Some predict quick passage, but said Gov. John Engler has indicated he would veto it.
