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Fast food workers comprise many of the minimum wage employees in Michigan.

(MLive.com files)

At least one portion of Michigan's workforce can count on a raise in 2017.

Workers earning minimum wage will earn $8.90 per hour starting on Jan. 1, an increase from $8.50.

The change is part of the 2014 legislation to raise the state's wage floor for most adults working in hourly positions (excluding tipped positions) in places with two or more employees age 16 or older. In 2014, the state's minimum wage was $7.40 - and by 2018, it will be $9.25.

With the increase, a full-time employee earning minimum wage will take home an extra $16 per week, or $832 per year.

It brings the annual total for a full-time minimum wage worker to $356 per week, or $18,512 for a 52-week job.

The federal poverty level for a single person is $11,880. The median household income for Michigan was $51,084 in 2015, but it was $55,876 a decade earlier.

Data for Michigan from 2013, a year before the wage hike was enacted, shows that 2.5 million workers in the state had hourly positions. Of them, 96,000 - or close to 4 percent - were paid at or below the minimum wage.

The minimum wage increase was a bipartisan measure in Michigan's legislature. The vote came a day ahead of a petition drive submitting signatures in support of a $10.10 minimum wage.

"This is something that's good for Michigan, it's good for the hardworking people of Michigan, and I believe economically sound in terms of hopefully creating an environment for long-term economic success," Gov. Rick Snyder said as he signed the 2014 legislation responsible for the Jan. 1 increase.

Michigan is one of 29 states with a minimum wage higher than the national minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.

National minimum wage protests have reached the state, with 39 people arrested in late November as they demonstrated for wage increases to $15 per hour outside of a Detroit McDonald's. That was part of a national "Fight for $15" protest. That effort is criticized by some, including conservatives and trade organizations, who say entry-level jobs will be lost with that level of increase.

Housing affordability is part of the drive behind efforts to increase the minimum wage. Data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition shows that a single person making minimum wage would need to work 57 hours per week to afford the average one-bedroom home in Michigan.