Macomb County would stop doing business with companies that pay their workers less than $9.58 an hour, under a \"living wage\" proposal put forward by two Democratic county commissioners. Commissioners Jon Switalski of Warren and Paul Gieleghem of Clinton Township are proposing mandatory wages for county contractors that would lift workers above the federal poverty level. For companies that don\'t offer health insurance benefits, the required wage would be set at 125 percent of the poverty line, or $12.09 per hour. David Reynolds, a professor at Wayne State University \'s Labor Studies Center , has studied living wage ordinances for several years and has found that the business community\'s concerns about costs proved unwarranted. Reynolds has found that many major cities who have reviewed their policy have subsequently strengthened their living wage ordinances.