Student employees at Ferris and across Michigan got an 18% minimum wage increase thanks to Michigan raising the minimum wage from $10.56 to $12.48.
Along with the minimum wage law, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed the Earned Sick Time Act into law. This allows employees to accrue one hour of earned sick time for every 30 hours worked, which is capped at 72 hours for the year.
Students with an on-campus job will likely have received a pay raise as of Feb. 21. This can be a good thing for student employees, with the inflation rate sitting at 3%, this means more money in student’s pockets.
As for business administration freshman Molina Dewald, a lifeguard at the Student Recreation Center, she thinks the wage increase is a good motivator for herself.
“This pay raise is definitely a great motivator for me,” Dewald said. “It shows me my hard work and contributions are being recognized, which makes me more committed to doing my best. Financially it helps me manage my expenses better and it gives me a little more flexibility.”
This could also mean prices across campus could rise, however, it is currently unclear as Ferris’ administration members were unavailable for comment.
Along with the potential price increases across campus, the university could be seeing some more negative consequences, Payroll Operations Coordinator Nikki Lofquist wanted to make it clear that Ferris has been keeping up with the wage increase.
“A lot of the departments have already seen the budget change for the wage increase,” Lofquist said. “They have been watching the news and keeping up on it, so the wage increase will only affect student employees, as we don’t have anyone besides student employees making minimum wage. For the most part, the university has done a good job in anticipating this change, but we will have a significant amount of full-time employees that will be receiving a pay cut.”
We could see a bump to Ferris’ budget with the wage increase. An 18% jump is a major boost, but according to Ferris President Dr. Bill Pink, the pay increase is not the only thing the university has to consider.
“Back in early fall when we first started hearing about this,” Pink said. “Because it’s not just the pay increase, it’s also the paid sick leave, both of those things we’ve paid close attention to and making sure from a budgetary and funding standpoint that we are prepared, and I think we are in a position to make sure we’re going to comply with whatever we’re told to comply with.”
A large wage increase puts a university under a lot of stress, but Pink is proud of the university for being prepared for the raise. The university already has the budget committee preparing for the next pay raise, which will increase again, this time to $13.29 by Feb. 21, 2026.
For supply chain management sophomore Kendall Roszczewski, also on the Club Sports Council, has concerns about the minimum wage increase.
“Raising the minimum wage does concern me in some ways,” Roszczewski said. “The first one is decreased hiring and layoffs, the Student Rec Center has so many employees and raising the minimum wage this substantially could affect them and the amount of workers they are able to pay. The second one being intramural sports, students pay a certain amount for intramural sports, with the minimum wage increase I fear that we may have to raise the price for intramural sports.”
The minimum wage will steadily increase yearly until it hits $14.97 by 2028.