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The Michigan House of Representatives voted on a pair of bills Thursday to preempt a Michigan Supreme Court ruling ordering an increase to the minimum wage and expanding paid sick leave.
Last summer, the court ruled that the GOP-led Legislature acted illegally in 2018 when it adopted a pair of voter initiatives on minimum wage and sick leave and then later amended them in the same legislative session. The court essentially ordered the original minimum wage and sick leave initiatives to go into effect starting Feb. 21.
The first bill introduced by Republican lawmakers this session, House Bill 4001, would increase the minimum wage this year to $12.00 an hour instead of $12.48 as ordered by the court. The bill would also preserve a lower minimum wage for restaurant servers and bartenders who receive tips, while the court’s order would eventually eliminate the tipped minimum wage by 2030. Currently, under the tip credit system, if customers’ tips don’t ensure such workers make the minimum wage, their employers pay the difference.
House Bill 4001 passed 63-41. While most Democrats opposed the bill, six voted in support of it: Democratic state Reps. Carol Glanville of Walker, Peter Herzberg of Westland, Tullio Liberati Jr. of Allen Park, Will Snyder of Muskegon, Karen Whitsett of Detroit and Angela Witwer of Delta Township. State Rep. Brad Paquette, R-Niles, was the lone GOP lawmaker to oppose the bill.
Ahead of the vote, several Democrats blasted the legislation as an effort to undermine the court’s mandated increase in the minimum wage workers have expected since last summer when the ruling came down. Bill sponsor, state Rep. John Roth, R-Interlochen, said businesses would suffer with the pay increases without intervention. “Our main streets will be transformed into shells of what they once were,” he said.
Lawmakers also passed House Bill 4002, which would exempt small businesses with fewer than 50 employees from guaranteeing the paid sick leave in the court’s order, which requires businesses with 10 or more workers to provide up to at least 72 hours of paid sick leave annually. The House GOP proposal would mean nearly 1.5 million Michigan workers might not have sick leave, Michigan League for Public Policy President and CEO Monique Stanton told lawmakers Jan. 14 during a committee hearing on the legislation. Proponents of the legislation have argued that the forthcoming changes via the court ruling to paid sick leave would place burdensome requirements on businesses.
House Bill 4002 passed 67-38, with the support of every GOP lawmaker and nine Democrats: Noah Arbit of West Bloomfield, Tyrone Carter of Detroit, Glanville, Herzberg, Liberati, Amos O’Neal of Saginaw, Snyder, Whitsett and Witwer.
Shortly after the vote, Michigan AFL-CIO President Ron Bieber expressed dismay with the lawmakers who supported the bills. “Every legislator, regardless of their party, should be held accountable for their vote to cut the pay and benefits for workers most in need. The legislature should respect the Supreme Court ruling and allow the minimum wage to increase and guarantee all workers have the ability to take care of themselves and their families when they are sick,” Bieber said in a statement. The Michigan Chamber of Commerce, meanwhile, applauded the votes.
Some restaurant servers have rallied for months to preserve the tip credit system in Michigan as part of the “Save MI Tips” campaign tied to the Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association. “Save MI Tips” spokesperson John Sellek celebrated the passage of House Bill 4001, saying “Michigan is leading the nation by taking action in a bipartisan fashion, placing immense pressure on the Senate to act quickly.”
One Fair Wage — a national organization advocating for the elimination of the tipped minimum wage — thanked the Democratic lawmakers who voted against the legislation. “This cruel legislation is a blatant giveaway to corporate interests, and we call on the Michigan Senate to reject it and stand with working families,” said One Fair Wage President Saru Jayaraman in a statement Thursday. The group she leads has signaled it may pursue a ballot referendum on any law watering down the court’s order.
The bills passed by the House Thursday next head to the Senate for consideration where Democrats in that chamber have introduced their own legislation to amend Michigan’s minimum wage and paid sick leave laws. To send changes on those policies to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for her approval, lawmakers pass the same version of the bills, but the two proposals on the table remain far apart from one another on timeline for changes to the minimum wage and exemptions to paid sick leave for small businesses.
This story was updated to add new information.
Contact Clara Hendrickson at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743.
