Michigan Workers to Get Pay Raise .(MP3- 1.8MB)

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For the first time in nine years, Michigan workers are getting a raise. The men and women who work so hard everyday and struggle to pay the bills and provide for their families on $5.15 an hour started making $6.95 an hour on October 1. More than 40 percent of the 460,000 workers throughout Michigan earning minimum wage are the sole bread winners in their families.

In my State of the State Address earlier this year, I vowed to raise the minimum wage for the citizens of Michigan, and two months later, I signed Senate Bill 318 (Public Act 81 of 2006) which increases the state’s minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.40 per hour over the next two years. Following the October 1 increase, the minimum wage will increase to $7.15 on July 1, 2007, and again to $7.40 on July 1, 2008. But my fight for working men and women in Michigan doesn’t stop here.

I’ve got the most comprehensive and aggressive economic plan of any governor in the country, and I am working every day to create jobs and opportunity for our citizens. Just like the minimum wage, I’m going to work until every piece of my economic plan is working for Michigan citizens.

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The Governor’s weekly radio address is released each Friday at 10:00 a.m. 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 Website on Mondays as a podcast for general distribution to personal MP3 players and home computers.