Time is running out for state lawmakers to modify a planned minimum wage hike scheduled to take effect in February.
Michigan lawmakers are grappling with the minimum wage increase now, because over the summer, the state Supreme Court struck down a previous legislative action to stall the increase.
Groups supporting and opposing the minimum wage increase have turned to bartenders and servers to be a face of their campaigns.
In Lansing on Monday, both sides held dueling news conferences to lobby state lawmakers.
Amy Covert is a mother of four who works as a server in Jackson. She said she worries if the minimum wage increase, including hiking wages for tipped workers, takes effect in February, it will cost her tips and maybe her job.
“They’re sitting there saying ‘We’re helping servers, we’re giving you guys more money,” said Covert. “They’re not taking into consideration the domino effect of what’s going to happen when this goes into effect.”
But where Covert see a threat to Michigan’s restaurant and bar workforce, Sam Taub, as server from Oakland County, sees paycheck stability.
“When you don’t know what your paycheck is going to look like until you get it, you can’t make plans for the future,” said Taub.
In 2018, the Republican-led Legislature adopted an initiative petition calling for a sharp increase in Michigan’s minimum wage. The legislative maneuver prevented the issue from landing on the ballot. State lawmakers then amended the law, effectively stalling and slowing the increases.
But this summer, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled the adopt and amend move violated the state Constitution. The high court’s ruling set the stage for the minimum wage law to be phased in beginning in February, 2025.
The group, One Fair Wage, which backed the minimum wage hike, accuses Michigan’s restaurant and bar industry of leading the fight to once again use the Legislature to block it from taking effect.
Former Democratic Congressman Andy Levin said the campaign includes pressuring minimum wage earners to speak out against the increase.
“This level of economic coercion is just huge,” Levin told reporters Monday in Lansing.
The group Save MI Tips insists it represents the interests of those who stand to gain a minimum wage pay hike, but who worry their tips and jobs might be at risk.
Spokesman John Sellek said Democratic and Republican state lawmakers are open to modifying the law.
“It’s a nonpartisan issue. It’s an economic issue. It’s about income. And their jobs and their future,” said Sellek.
Legislation to modify Michigan’s minimum wage law is currently sitting in a legislative committee.
It’s unclear if the Democratic-led state House will act on the bill before the current lame duck session ends. Observers say it’s possible Democratic leaders will allow the bill to die when the current legislative session ends, and leave any changes, and political backlash, for when Republicans take control of the state House next year.
