KALAMAZOO, MI -- Ask Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda why two wealthy celebrities came to Michigan to advocate for a higher minimum wage, and they offer a whole list of reasons.

They passionately believe in the need for a higher minimum wage, particularly for workers who rely on tips.

They see Michigan as a key state in that fight, based on Michigan's longtime ties to the labor movement and as a Democratic state that went for Donald Trump in the 2016 election.

Both Tomlin and Fonda have personal ties to Michigan. Tomlin grew up in Detroit and attended Cass Tech High School and Wayne State University. Fonda's second husband, Tom Hayden, grew up in Royal Oak and was a University of Michigan graduate.

Tomlin and Fonda also say they want to help the progressive movement create a platform going forward -- "a people's platform," as Fonda put it -- and want to use the minimum-wage campaign as a way to reach out to voters and create a movement around shared values.

Trump's election has "galvanized people to resist, and resistance has accomplished a lot," Fonda said "But we need to go beyond 'no.' We have to come to the 'yes.' ''

By talking to voters and developing a platform, she said, the hope is "to bring people together to say, what is the 'yes' we're trying to work for. "

Tomlin and Fonda -- who co-star in the Netflix comedy "Grace and Frankie" -- offered their thoughts while in Kalamazoo on Tuesday, where they gave a noon talk at Kalamazoo College's Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership.

It was the first of a series of Michigan events on behalf of One Fair Wage, a coalition aiming to raise Michigan's minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2022, with tipped workers earning the same by 2024. The coalition hopes to put the proposal on the 2018 Michigan ballot.

Fonda is friends with Saru Jayaraman, co-founder of Restaurant Opportunities United, which is part of the coalition behind One Fair Wage. And while the ballot initiative would raise the minimum wage for all workers, Tomlin and Fonda focused Tuesday on the need to raise the wage for tipped workers.

Michigan's current minimum wage is $8.90 for most workers and $3.38 for tipped workers. Those minimums will increase is $9.25 and $3.52 in 2018.

The median hourly wage for a waiter or waitress in Michigan is $9.22 an hour, including tips, and the median annual wage for a full-time worker is about $19,200, which is below the poverty line for a family of three.

"I'm outraged that tipped workers, who are mostly women, live mostly below the poverty line and the U.S. public has to subsidize these incredibly wealthy restaurant chains with our tips to make sure these workers have a living wage," Fonda said.

About 80 percent of tipped workers are women, Tomlin said.

Tomlin said many food servers have to rely on food stamps and Medicaid, government aid that would be unnecessary if workers earned more.

Tomlin began the presentation at Kalamazoo College with a monologue in which she played the role of Judith Beasley, a longtime middle-aged waitress with a back-breaking, low-paying job.

"I know I sound bitter, and maybe I am," Tomlin said in the voice of Judith Beasley.

Tomlin also described her own experiences at minimum wage jobs, including waitressing at a Howard Johnson's restaurant near Time Square when she was a young actor.

Tomlin recalled wearing a uniform so starched that it stood up on its own, and taking pride in her work station and serving her regular customers.

She took it so seriously, she said, that she once got on the restaurant's public announcement system to say, "Ladies and gentlemen, your Howard Johnson's Server of the Week is Lily Tomlin."

While Tomlin offered humor and personal stories, Fonda offered full-throated activism.

"This not just an economic issue," Fonda said about pay for tipped workers. "It's a gender issue. Most women working for tips are women."

"It's a legalized gender pay gap," Jayaraman told the K-College audience.

She added that making the minimum wage the same for all workers, regardless of tips, is "not a radical idea. Seven states already do this." And contrary to dire warnings of the National Restaurant Association, Jayaraman said, restaurants in those states have continued to flourish and tipped workers are less likely to live in poverty. (The seven states: California, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Nevada and Montana.)

But while the drive to raise wages for tipped workers is important, Fonda said, their advocacy goes beyond that, stressing the "parallel effort" to create a larger progressive agenda.

"What do we need in Michigan? What kind of state do we want?" Fonda said. "What happens here in Michigan could become a template."

Those efforts includes listening to Trump voters, Fonda said.

"I am a Democrat. I have a board of directors (for her nonprofit) that include people who voted for Trump," she said. "I need to understand why.

"Because of the growing inequality, there is so much fear and so much pain. People are being pitted against each other," she said. "We're not going anywhere unless we work together."

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