Bigger Paycheck?

For many people in the state of Michigan, July 2nd passed without a second thought.  But for over 300,000 people, July 2nd meant a bigger paycheck.  The Michigan Minimum wage increased from $7.15 to $7.40 because of a bill passed in 2006 which phased in a three-tiered wage hike.  It is also believed that over 450,000 workers recieved some sort of pay boost even though they were already above the minimum wage.

In short, this means that a person working a full-time job at minimum wage, has gone from making $10,712 a year to $15,392 per year.  They did this within a two year time span.  While we should certainly be applauding this movement towards a more fair wage (but not necessarily good enough yet), it still hurts to know that it is not even enough to break the 2008 federal poverty definition for 2008:

         2008 HHS Poverty Guidelines

Persons in Family or Household	48 Contiguous States and D.C.	Alaska	Hawaii
1	$10,400	$13,000	$11,960
2	14,000	17,500	16,100
3	17,600	22,000	20,240
4	21,200	26,500	24,380
5	24,800	31,000	28,520
6	28,400	35,500	32,660
7	32,000	40,000	36,800
8	35,600	44,500	40,940
For each additional person, add	3,600	4,500	4,140

SOURCE:  Federal Register, Vol. 73, No. 15, January 23, 2008, pp. 3971–3972

So thank you very much for the pay increase, but we seriously need to look at adjusting it for inflation (like the state of Washington) or requiring a vote every year on it or something of the sort.  I’m open for ideas here people.