Happy New Year to Michigan Wage Workers

Michigan minimum wage workers get a 22-cent increase for 2022

By Lynda Wheatley | Jan. 1, 2022

Michigan’s labor force is in short supply compared to its demand, but 2022 has brought only a small bump in the state’s minimum wages? As of Jan. 1, the state’s minimum wage has been increased from $9.65 to $9.87.

In line with that wee bump, the 85 percent wage rate for minors aged 16 and 17 is now $8.39 an hour and rates of pay for tipped employees is now $3.75 an hour. The training wage for newly hired employees ages 16 to 19 for their first 90 days of employment remains unchanged at $4.25.

Michigan is just one of 29 states across the nation that opted to increase its minimum wage in 2022. (California is the only state in the nation that has reached the $15 hourly minimum labor activists push for, but that rate is reserved exclusively for California employers with 26+ employees; employers with 25 or fewer employees pay $14 per hour.) Nevertheless, the rate in Michigan — unlike in Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Hampshire, and several others — beats the federal minimum: $7.25 hour for non-tipped employees and $2.13 for tipped employees.

*Photo by Sharon McCutcheon, Unsplash