Michigan has become the latest state to increase its minimum wage. According to Michigan’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs press release, the new minimum wage of $8.15 per hour went into effect last Monday and will increase over a four year period, from 2014 to 2018, to a high of $9.25 per hour by the end of 2018.

The Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs also announced that there will be an increase in the minimum wages that tip workers (waiters, bartenders, etc.) and overtime workers earn.

Michigan joins 12 other states and Washington D.C. in increasing its minimum wage. Some of the other states that have increased the minimum wage are California, New York, and Massachusetts.

During the president’s Weekly Address on August 30, 2014, President Obama spoke about the importance of increasing the minimum wage in order to provide a “living wage” for American families.

President Obama said, “In America, no one who works full time should ever have to raise a family in poverty.

A hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay. And raising the minimum wage would be one of the best ways to give a boost to working families.”

In February, President Obama signed an executive order that increased the minimum wage of contract workers to $10.10 per hour.

The Senate voted on a minimum wage bill in April, but it failed with a vote of 54-42.