The minimum wage in Michigan is currently $9.65 per hour, where it will remain for 2021. | Flickr
The minimum wage in Michigan is currently $9.65 per hour, where it will remain for 2021. | Flickr
Michigan's minimum wage increase, which was scheduled to go into effect on New Year's Day, won't be happening due to the unemployment rate rising past a predetermined level.
After a statewide petition in 2018, a law was passed that would halt minimum wage increases if the unemployment rate for the year surpassed 8.5%, Michigan Capitol Confidential reported.
The Improved Workforce Opportunity Wage Act states, "An initiation of legislation to enact the Improved Workforce Opportunity Wage Act, which would fix minimum wages for employees within this state; prohibit wage discrimination; provide for a wage deviation board; provide for the administration and enforcement of the act; prescribe penalties for the violation of the act; and supersede certain acts and parts of acts including 2014 PA 138."
This year, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Michigan has seen an annual unemployment rate of 10.2% from January through October. This led the Michigan Bureau of Employment Relations to announce that the scheduled minimum wage increase would not be happening in the new year.
Right now, Michigan's minimum wage is $9.65 per hour, Michigan Capitol Confidential reported. The canceled increase would have raised the state's minimum wage to $9.87.
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