A state House committee approved legislation Thursday to scale back minimum wage and earned sick time laws set to take effect in a few weeks.
These fast-tracked bills would restore a tipped wage that’s lower than the new minimum wage, put more conditions on earned sick leave, and slow down the scheduled increases in both. The bills were both approved with broad bipartisan votes that sent them to the House floor for action next week.
“There’s a consensus being forged here in recognition that we need to work and act to help protect Michigan workers and small businesses,” said Representative Bill G. Schuette (R-Midland), who chairs the special committee.
The action wrapped up two separate days of testimony that was dominated by businesses and workers expressing fears that the new laws would cause shutdowns and layoffs.
The bills address a Michigan Supreme Court decision that the Legislature illegally acted six years ago to override citizen-initiated sick leave and minimum wage laws. The decisions set a schedule of raising the hourly wage from $10.56 to $12.48 on February 21. It would rise to $14.97 in 2028 and then be ratcheted with inflation. The bills would instead set the minimum wage at $12 an hour this year and incrementally increase it to $15 in 2029.
But, under these bills, the minimum wage for tipped workers would roll back to 38% of the regular minimum wage. The bills would also exempt businesses with fewer than 50 employees from the paid sick leave policy. Larger businesses would have to allow full-time employees to accrue up to 72 hours of sick leave.
But these changes don’t sit well with the coalition that campaigned for the minimum wage and sick leave initiatives only to have the rug pulled out from under that work by Republican majorities during a lame duck legislative session.
“These were part of a 2018 petition drive and because of the unlawful and unconstitutional actions of the Legislature, these provisions have been delayed for the last six years,” said Rachel Richards with the Michigan League for Public Policy, a progressive advocacy group that opposes the changes. Richards told Michigan Public Radio the laws should be allowed to go into effect as intended before they were illegally altered by the Legislature.
The next step is for the bills to be voted on by the House and then the Senate. If they are adopted by both chambers, they would go to Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer to be signed or vetoed.
