“If this change were enacted, we would be able to retain employees with experience, and ultimately that benefits the people we serve. The way it is now, all the workers come and go because these jobs take a ton of time and have a ton of responsibilities but the salary is somewhere between $25,000 and $32,000 a year — it’s not enough. If we restored overtime protections, we would see experienced staff, who are able to assess risk in family homes, be able to ultimately prevent children from going into foster care. But because they leave, families aren’t getting quality services, so there’s more risks within the home.”

-STEPHANIE STEVENS

Stephanie Stevens is a social worker at Wellspring in Grand Rapids. She manages a team of social workers who work in the field making about $28,000 a year while regularly putting in 50 hours a week — which brings their hourly pay rate down to minimum wage. Because these social workers must have 4-6 year degrees, nobody on her staff stays for more than a year, and Stephanie can see the effects it has on their work.

“It’s an emotional stress, it’s a physical stress, because I’m just always exhausted being on my feet for that much every week. And then I’m only guaranteed one day off a week, it’s not a healthy work environment at all. I’m at a breaking point. 

They have a lot of employees on salary in order to work us over 40 hours without having to worry about overtime. In the industry, there’s tons of jobs available, and they could be good jobs, and they could be consistent jobs, but the ownership and management just refuses to pay people properly. Finding balance in your life makes you a better employee, so it’s just like this endless cycle of good things if workers are treated properly.” - KOREY MORIS

Korey Morris is a general manager at a restaurant in Southeast Michigan she’d prefer not to name, where she’s usually scheduled to work over 60 hours a week. She wants to progress in her career but wishes she could actually see her husband and spend time with him when she’s not exhausted from such long hours.

Overtime Pay: Making rules to ensure everyone gets fair overtime for their hard work.

Earned Paid Sick Leave: Ensuring Michigan’s working families get paid sick days that are made available as they work and earn those days. 

Lowering Prescription Drug Prices: Pharmaceutical companies are making record profits, while millions of Michiganders are being forced to choose between life saving medicine and putting food on the table. We need policies that reduce costs and ensure Michiganders can afford the medicine they need to survive.

Closing Corporate Loopholes: Big corporations are seeing record profits and they CEOs are getting record pay. It is time to close loopholes so they pay their fair share.