Michigan’s minimum wage will increase to $7.40 an hour starting July 1.

“I know minimum wage is not the way to fix it long-term. Gas is $4 a gallon. I had to get rid of my car because gas is so expensive It seems like everyone I know has to work two jobs to break even,” Jenkins said.

The 25-cent wage hike is the third in a series of minimum wage increases passed by the state in 2006, said Jack Finn, director of the Wage & Hour Division at the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth.

Minimum wage jumped from $5.15 to $6.95 on October 1, 2006 and to $7.15 on July 1, 2007, he said.

The wage increase applies to Michigan residents at least 18 years old, Finn said. Minimum wage for those younger than 18 will increase to $6.29 an hour, which is 85 percent of the adult wage. More than 10 percent of Michigan workers could be affected, he said.

“It’s been part of American political life since the first minimum wage increase was signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s,” he said.

The increase is not expected to have an effect on Michigan’s unemployment rate, estimated in May to be 8.5 percent, Finn said.

Donna Hawkins, accounting and payroll assistant for the city of East Lansing, said although all city jobs pay above the minimum wage, East Lansing plans to increase wages to keep its pay proportionately competitive.

But Chris Hanna, interim assistant vice president for MSU human resources, said in an e-mail that some MSU employees might be affected by the pay increases.

“Approximately 2,000 (MSU) student employees out of 17,000 will receive increases,” he said. “None of MSU’s approximately 11,000 regular full- or part-time faculty, academic staff or support staff will be impacted.”

Emma Soloway, a political science junior, said she makes $7.15 an hour working for MSU’s Academic Orientation Program. The wage is not enough for AOP workers who help freshmen set up schedules and give campus tours, she said.

With a pay increase she will buy an Apple iPhone, she added.

For Amy Roehl, a communicative sciences and disorders senior, the difference between what she got paid and what newer workers get paid is a source of frustration.

“I got hired at $7.15,” she said. “When I got promoted I started making $7.75. The people that get hired now, make $7.75 also.”