Study: Higher minimum wage, tax credits together help workers

By JERRY WOLFFE

Raising the minimum wage and expanding state Earned Income Tax Credits are two key strategies to be used together to help working families as the economy slowly recovers from the Great Recession, a new national report said.

Michigan has taken steps in the right direction but has much room for improvement, researchers said.

“Workers in Michigan continue to struggle with low wages that have declined over the years. Strengthening the state’s minimum wage and Earned Income Tax Credit even more would help those earning the least in our state, and it would boost our economy,’’ said Gilda Z. Jacobs of the Michigan League for Public Policy.

The report, State Earned Income Tax Credits and Minimum Wages Work Best Together, released by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, concludes that states should use both options together to boost income, widen the path out of poverty and reduce income inequality.

Michigan’s declining and stagnating wages were documented in the League’s Labor Day report released last week. Wages for workers in the lowest 20 percent of incomes have fallen dramatically, with a 31 percent drop since 1979 for male workers earning the least.

A report by the Michigan Association of United Ways this week also estimated that 40 percent of Michigan families do not earn enough to pay the basic bills.

Increasing the EITC and minimum wage are ways to reward work as opposed to increasing public assistance to meet the basic needs of housing, utilities, transportation, and food.

Michigan’s minimum wage on Monday increased from $7.40 an hour to $8.15 an hour and will climb to $9.25 by 2018. It will be indexed to inflation, with some exceptions, but does not eliminate the tipped wage. A ballot proposal to push it to $10.10 an hour and include tipped workers narrowly missed the ballot, and polls showed public support for the higher minimum wage. The state’s EITC is 6 percent of the federal EITC.

Jerry Wolffe is the writer-in-residence and advocate-at-large at the Macomb-Oakland Regional Center. He can be reached at 586 263-8950.

Study: Higher minimum wage, tax credits together help workers

By JERRY WOLFFE

Raising the minimum wage and expanding state Earned Income Tax Credits are two key strategies to be used together to help working families as the economy slowly recovers from the Great Recession, a new national report said.

Michigan has taken steps in the right direction but has much room for improvement, researchers said.

“Workers in Michigan continue to struggle with low wages that have declined over the years. Strengthening the state’s minimum wage and Earned Income Tax Credit even more would help those earning the least in our state, and it would boost our economy,’’ said Gilda Z. Jacobs of the Michigan League for Public Policy.

The report, State Earned Income Tax Credits and Minimum Wages Work Best Together, released by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, concludes that states should use both options together to boost income, widen the path out of poverty and reduce income inequality.

Michigan’s declining and stagnating wages were documented in the League’s Labor Day report released last week. Wages for workers in the lowest 20 percent of incomes have fallen dramatically, with a 31 percent drop since 1979 for male workers earning the least.

A report by the Michigan Association of United Ways this week also estimated that 40 percent of Michigan families do not earn enough to pay the basic bills.

Increasing the EITC and minimum wage are ways to reward work as opposed to increasing public assistance to meet the basic needs of housing, utilities, transportation, and food.

Michigan’s minimum wage on Monday increased from $7.40 an hour to $8.15 an hour and will climb to $9.25 by 2018. It will be indexed to inflation, with some exceptions, but does not eliminate the tipped wage. A ballot proposal to push it to $10.10 an hour and include tipped workers narrowly missed the ballot, and polls showed public support for the higher minimum wage. The state’s EITC is 6 percent of the federal EITC.

Jerry Wolffe is the writer-in-residence and advocate-at-large at the Macomb-Oakland Regional Center. He can be reached at 586 263-8950.

Flooding hits MORC buildings, damages physician’s home

Michigan public colleges don’t provide financial aid to many potential students

By JERRY WOLFFE

As more than 750,000 Michigan public college students prepare to start a new school year, older adults are finding it harder than ever to participate, a new report says.

Michigan offers no financial aid grants to attend a public university or community college for those who graduated from high school more than 10 years ago.

Two of Michigan’s three ­higher education grants are aimed at students who graduated a decade or less ago, according to a new policy brief released Wednesday by the Michigan League for Public Policy. And the third one can only be used at private institutions, which are generally more expensive.

“We know that postsecondary education is so important in today’s economy,” said Gilda Z. Jacobs, president and CEO of the Michigan League for Public Policy. “Helping older workers sharpen their skills or pursue studies leading to in-demand jobs will help Michigan’s economy.’’

The League’s report, State Financial Aid Leaves Adult Learners Behind, shows that financial aid grants that once helped older students have disappeared as Michigan made recession-era cuts to higher education. Those eliminated were the Adult Part-Time Grant, the Michigan Education Opportunity Grant, the Michigan Nursing Scholarship and a state Work-Study program.

That leaves three major grants: The Tuition Incentive Program, aimed at students from low-income families, and the Michigan Competitive Scholarship, which are only available for 10 years after high school graduation while the third, the Michigan Tuition Grant, does not set a post-graduation limit but is only available for attending private, not-for-profit institutions.

 “Leaving older workers out of financial aid programs is a flaw in Michigan’s workforce development strategy that needs to be fixed,’’ Jacobs said. “ The health of our economy depends on workers getting the skills they need to become productive employees and support their families.’’

(The report may be found online: http://www.mlpp.org/state-financial-aid-leaves-adult-learners-behind)

Jerry Wolffe is the writer-in-residence and advocate-at-large at the Macomb-Oakland Regional Center. He can be reached at (586) 263-8950.

Caregiver’s home becomes set for a love story

front row: Richard Fisher and Lister Stewart have become part of the family of Sue Cuddington (behind Richard) and her husband, Chuck who is behind Lister. Sue has been taken care of the men since they were children..

By JERRY WOLFFE

Two men with disabilities a Utica woman has lovingly taken care of since they were youngsters in her home have become “like my own children.”

“I love them now and it’s going to be hard to let them go when I retire,” said Sue Cuddington, who lives with her husband Chuck.

Sue took in Lister Stewart in 1981 when he was about 10 and Richard Fischer 26 years ago when he was a teenager. Both, now in their early 40s, have multiple disabilities and are non-verbal.

“It was a good way for me to be able to be home with my children and also provided a good home for Stewart and Fischer,” said Cuddington, who plans to retire as a Macomb-Oakland Regional Center Adult Foster Care Home provider in June 2015 after 34 years of caring for those with disabilities.

Cuddington has a son Daniel, 42, of Warren, and daughter, Cheryl, 40, of Berkeley. Cheryl has two daughters, Suzie, 18, and Lynda, 12, while son Daniel has a 6-year-old daughter Brooklyn. Her husband, a Utica City Councilman, has a son, Chuckie, 37.

Sue bathes, dresses and feeds Lister and Richard early during the weekdays to ready them to go to a Life Skills workshop in Roseville.

“Richard and Lister are picked up between 8:15 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. and return home between 3:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.,” Sue said.

The two are given a snack and evenings are spent watching television, going for a walk in the neighborhood or the men play with their toys on the floor of their bedroom. Sue pushes one wheelchair and her daughter the other during their treks.

“My family, including my (late) father Max and mother Alwine were always supportive and helped me before I married Chuck,” she said. In fact, Sue’s mother was a caregiver for MORC for 20 years.

The first-floor bedroom at the Cuddington’s was enlarged and the home is accessible to a wheelchair-user but Sue or her husband Chuck must lift the men into a claw-foot bathtub since they don’t have a lift.

“Chuck helps me lift them into the chair and helps feed them,” he said.

Lister, who came to Sue’s home from the state institution in Plymouth, and Richard, who was in the Oakland County foster care system, go to bed between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.

“I do love them as if they’re my own kids,” Sue said, a comment echoed by her husband of 25 years.

“Our children accept the boys because they grew up with them,” Chuck said.

People don’t realize how much time you spend being a good caregiver, both Chuck and Sue said.

“We don’t go anywhere because one of us had to stay with the boys,” Chuck said.

Each said they only get to go out as a couple if one of their adult children or a relative takes care of Lister and Richard.

It hasn’t been easy all these years but without our help, “no doubt they’d be in a group home,” Sue said.

“People would walk into a store and let the door slam on us,” she said of some of the difficulties faced over the years. “Doctors offices aren’t accessible. Lister had a hernia and the doctor made us go out the back door because he didn’t want to disturb his other patients.”

The Cuddingtons are concerned as to where Lister and Richard will be living after Sue retires.

“I love them and it’ll be very hard letting them go,” Sue said. “I think one of the conditions to let them go will be that I am able to see them afterwards and make sure they’re doing OK,” Sue said.

Wolffe is the writer-in-residence and advocate-at-large at the Macomb-Oakland Regional Center. He can be reached at 586-263-8950.

Carhartt and MORC'S 10th anniversary hockey game scheduled

By JERRY WOLFFE

Employees of Carhartt, an American-based clothing company founded in 1889 that focuses on making work clothes, has adopted the Macomb-Oakland Regional Center, Inc., as its charity to receive funds raised in the Carhartt vs. Red Wings Alumni game.

The 10th Anniversary MORC Hockey Game will be at 7 p.m., Friday, Nov. 21, at the Dearborn Ice Skating Center. 

This game for MORC will be extra special because it is part of Carhartt’s 125-year Anniversary Celebration.

Over the last 13 years Carhartt has provided thousands of people with disabilities with food, new winter coats and clothing, furniture and appliances, van repair and emergency help.  Each year, Carhartt adopts several hundred people for its “Carhartt Christmas.”

Thank you to all the MORC staff, local businesses and community members who volunteer to help with Carhartt donations throughout the year and on Christmas.

MORC is the state's largest nonprofit agency with offices in Clinton Township and Auburn Hills and provides homes in the community with 24/7 care for those with developmental disabilities or mental illness.

Jerry Wolffe is the writer-in-residence and advocate-at-large at MORC. He can be reached at 586 263 8950.