• Wisconsin Senate passes minimum wage increase.
• Passed by 18-14 vote.
• Will go into effect in June if passed by Assembly.

The Wisconsin State Senate passed a bill Tuesday that will potentially raise the state minimum wage from $6.50 per hour to $7.60 per hour, starting in June.

The bill, passed with an 18-14 vote, would raise the minimum wage by almost 17 percent and provide annual automatic adjustments for inflation if passed by the State Assembly and signed by Gov. Jim Doyle.

The bill also includes a provision that permits local communities to further increase the minimum wage if they deem it necessary.

While the bill is largely supported by the Democrat-controlled Assembly, it faces opposition from Republicans and a variety of business groups across the state. They suggest raising the minimum wage would increase costs for employers and businesses and put more employees out of work.

According to the State Department of Workforce Development, 225,000 people would receive automatic raises, as they are presently being paid between $6.50 and $7.60 per hour.

Because the bill would not take effect until June, it will have little impact on graduating students like John Dritsas, a senior in the College of Communication, who has worked above minimum wage at both Raynor Memorial Library and the Alumni Memorial Union for three years.

When he was originally hired at the library minimum wage was a little more than $5, Dritsas said. He is presently paid about $7 an hour at the library and about $8 an hour at the AMU, where he works with the building staff, setting up events.

He said he supports the minimum wage increase, but has some concerns about its overall effect. "Tuition is going up," he said, "but it's not really great with the economy."

Businesses have similar concerns.

"There's a danger that it could backfire," said Larry Birkett, associate director of the Marquette Spirit Shop, "by making the people it is supposed to help harder to employ."

Birkett, who has worked at the university-owned Spirit Shop for six years, said that while he doesn't think the increase will impact student employees, the plan could hurt small businesses that aren't backed by a larger entity, like the Spirit Store is.

Student employees, such as Dristas and College of Communication freshman Nick Herff, tend to back the proposed increase. Herff also works at the library.

"I think the increase is a good idea because it would give employees working for minimum wage more flexibility and opportunities," Herff said. "The downside is that businesses will have to pay more for labor, which could cause them to stop operations."

Herff also likes the proposed minimum wage increase because it will make the state minimum wage more similar to that of other nearby states, such as Iowa, Michigan or his home state, Illinois. The proposed increase would set the Wisconsin minimum wage between the rates in Iowa and Michigan, $7.25 and $7.40, respectively, and the Illinois rate, $7.75.

"It's a bit of a shock coming to Milwaukee from Illinois and automatically taking a decent-sized pay cut," Herff said.

In the end, however, supporters advocate for the bill's passage on behalf of families, rather than for personal reasons.

"Living off minimum wage isn't really sustainable with a family," Dritsas said, speaking of the present minimum wage. "It's really not enough to get by on."