Michigan minimum wage rises to $10.33 an hour in 2024

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (FOX 2) - The new year also means an increase in the Michigan minimum wage, which will rise to an hourly rate of $10.33 an hour.

The tipped minimum wage will also climb to $3.93 an hour. 

The rising wages went into effect at the start of the new year. Its scheduled increase was written into law several years earlier.

The rising wages is a good thing for employees - but can pose a challenge for some business owners that wrestle with their own costs.

"I think it’s tough being a business and paying more but I believe everybody deserves a little more but it’s a crazy world, everything is so expensive, it's difficult to make ends meet," said Danial Goodman, the general manager of Lou's Deli.

For Goodman, the costs eventually get passed onto the consumer. 

When more money is spent paying employees, it adds to a series of growing expenses that don't stop at manpower and staffing.

"Unfortunately, it effects everybody yah know? Everything gets more expensive, the meat gets more expensive, it makes the sandwiches more expensive, everything cost more, so unfortunately, it always trickles down to the consumer," he said.

For Abe Mroue, the owner of Providence Coney Island, it's a no brainier about where his excess funds would go. They pay their waitstaff nearly double what the minimum wage is. 

"I’ve been on the other side," he said. "It’s always s struggle. They have to survive like you have to survive and when everybody survives, we all good."