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Court-ordered minimum wage and sick leave laws were set to take effect Friday, but Michigan lawmakers struck a deal changing the laws again.

The minimum wage did rise and it’s expected to reach 15 dollars an hour in 2027. Tips earned by some wage workers will stay intact under this court order, which would have phased out over time. There were also changes to paid sick leave laws.

The result is a win for people who argue that eliminating the tipped wage would hurt businesses and discourage tipping. 

The President of One Fair Wage Saru Jayaraman joins the show to discuss how supporters of the court-ordered laws are feeling. The organization is advocating for a 15 dollar minimum wage for workers nationally. 

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

More stories from The Metro on Feb. 26, 2025.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed bills last week to raise Michigan’s minimum wage and guarantee sick leave for workers.

The hourly rate will rise to $15 in 2027 for everyone except people who earn tips. They will get 38% of the minimum wage in 2025. That will grow to 50% in 2031 and then be capped at that rate. If their combined wages and tips don’t add up to $15/hour, their employers will make up the difference.

More: Michigan House passes minimum wage bill

A companion law guarantees all workers paid sick leave. How much they earn depends on how many hours they work and the size of their employer. Workers at large companies will get 72 hours of paid sick leave. Those who work at small firms will receive 40 hours.

Bipartisan deal comes together at the last minute

Michigan’s divided Legislature worked together to enact the new policies. Senate Democrats and House Republicans compromised to ensure bipartisan support.

Had they not acted by Feb. 21, a Michigan Supreme Court order would have implemented a 2018 ballot petition. That proposal raised the minimum wage for all workers to almost $15/hour, including those who earn tips. It also would have guaranteed everyone the same amount of paid leave.

The Republican-led Legislature adopted the petition but then weakened it in a way justices ruled was illegal.

Rep. Jamie Thompson (R-Brownstown Twp.) voted for the compromise.

“I do support a higher minimum wage,” she said. “It’s very hard to expect that a minimum wage job is going to support a family.”

But Thompson also says those jobs were never meant to support families.

“I feel like they were intended for students or people working toward getting a better job.”

She also says many companies already pay workers more than the minimum wage.

“I know a lot of single moms out there that are raising kids on their own,” she said. “They would never be able to pay their bills and not be homeless if they were just working less than 40 hours a week at a minimum wage job.”

Thompson also says it was important to preserve a lower wage for tipped workers.

“We can get them making a little more hourly money, but they still keep their tips and business owners don’t go under,” she said.

Business groups who opposed the higher minimum wage argued before the vote that it would kill jobs and cause small enterprises to close. Years of economic research don’t support that claim, as shown here, here, and here.

Do new lawmakers relate to workers?

Republican support for raising the minimum wage reflects a policy shift within the party. Rep. Thompson says many newer GOP lawmakers are more sympathetic to working people.

“A lot more everyday citizens have gotten involved in politics because they’ve seen how the legislation is actually affecting their family, their business, their children,” she said. “We understand how hard it is to raise a family.”

Thompson was elected to the state House in 2022 and won a second term in 2024.

After some compromise, the Michigan Legislature passes a revised version of the minimum wage/sick leave laws late Thursday. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the bills into law early Friday afternoon. As part of the weekly series MichMash, host Cheyna Roth and Gongwer News Service’s Alethia Kasben discuss the reactions. 

Subscribe to MichMash on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode:

• Whitmer signs minimum wage/sick leave bills
• Fallout from the compromised bills
• House Oversight Committee lays out policy plans

Roth shared how even though these compromised bills were the result of bipartisan efforts, some Democratic supporters aren’t too happy with the result. 

“Union and advocacy groups are traditionally democratic allies, and they are not happy with the outcome,” she said. “So there could be some fallout with democratic lawmakers who pushed for these changes and voted for them.”

We also covered how the Republican-led Michigan House is focused on its Oversight Committee and creating policy priorities. Kasben spoke with state Rep. Jay DeBoyer, the Republican chair of the Michigan House Oversight Committee, who laid out his plans for creating more transparency in the legislature.

DeBoyer said that this new structure of oversight is one that he believes should continue as is because it allows residents to become more comfortable with government. When asked whether Democrats claim that this is an attempt on the Republican-led House to play “gotcha” politics, he said:

“Only the guilty need to feel guilty, right? Only the guilty need to worry. I’m going to put this message out there right now. If anybody listens to this, if you’re behaving in a manner that you shouldn’t be behaving and you work in state government, you need to consider changing your ways.” 

More from WDET:

• New rules give Michigan House Oversight Committee greater subpoena power
• Detroit Evening Report: Gov. Whitmer signs new minimum wage, sick leave policies
• Michigan House passes minimum wage bill

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation on Friday to preserve Michigan’s lower minimum wage for tipped workers and to modify the law that requires most employers to provide paid sick leave.

Subscribe to the Detroit Evening Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

The governor signed the bills just hours after they were sent to her by the Legislature.

In a statement, Whitmer said the new laws are the product of bipartisan compromises that still provide better wages and guaranteed sick leave.

The state minimum wage is now $12.48 — up from $10.56. The minimum wage for tipped workers is $5.09. Employers are expected to make up the difference if salary and tips don’t meet the minimum wage.

Small businesses with fewer than 10 employees must allow workers to accrue up to 40 hours of paid sick leave. People who work for larger employers can bank up to 72 hours of sick time a year.

These new laws preempt petition initiatives that would have required more generous wage and sick leave policies. The petition campaigns called the new laws a betrayal of their efforts to use the initiative process to improve minimum wage and sick leave standards.

Groups say they’re looking at options, including legal action, new petition initiative campaigns, or a referendum to challenge the laws on the ballot.

—Reporting by Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network

Other headlines for Friday, Feb. 21, 2025:

• Cuts to the U.S. Department of Education could affect Michigan if President Donald Trump shuts down the agency, local education leaders say.
• The 9th annual African American Family Book Expo is taking place from noon to 5 p.m. Feb. 22 at the Ernest T Ford Field House in Highland Park.
• The Henry Ford Museum is presenting a new exhibit this Saturday in honor of Black History Month titled “We Shall Overcome: The 60th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act,” featuring artifacts that explore the rich story of what it took to establish voting rights for African Americans.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

A bill to change Michigan’s minimum wage law ahead of it taking effect passed the state Legislature Wednesday. The law is scheduled to take effect Friday.

If left unchanged, the law would gradually raise the minimum wage for both tipped and non-tipped workers until both are making the same amount by 2030.

The bill would speed up raises for non-tipped workers so they get to $15 an hour by 2027 instead of just coming close in 2028 with a planned $14.97 minimum wage.

But the bill would also slow down gradual raises for people who get tips. It would cap that minimum wage for tipped workers, like bartenders and servers, at half of what everyone else makes.

Employers would still be responsible for covering the gap if tips don’t make up the difference.

Rep. Bill G. Schuette (R-Midland) said that’s a necessary compromise to protect businesses.

“It’s not perfect, but it is an action, an immediate action that’s going to help preserve our tip credit and the tip wage system. And I think that’s vital in here to the restaurant industry,” Schuette said after the House vote Wednesday.

The bill is now cleared to head to the governor to receive her signature. But, for it to go into place by Friday’s deadline, it would need the Senate to vote for it to take effect immediately. That would require a supermajority in the Democratic-controlled chamber.

Republicans and hospitality industry groups say restaurants and bars could go out of business if they become responsible for covering a server’s entire base pay. Some Democrats in both the House and Senate also voted in favor of the bill.

But other Democrats say lawmakers shouldn’t touch the petition-initiated minimum WAGE law before it takes effect Friday.

That’s especially after lawmakers, in 2018, adopted the initiative before it could go to the ballot and watered it down, in a move known as “adopt and amend.” It led to a court challenge that eventually set the Feb. 21 deadline to begin with.

One Fair Wage, the group behind the petition, sent out a press release Tuesday that argued passing the bill would be illegal under the court ruling. It included an open letter from University of Michigan law professor Samuel Bagenstos.

“The Legislature’s original adopt-and-amend constitutional violation has meant that the Wage Act and Earned Sick Leave Act have been in suspended animation for years and have still not gone into effect. For the Legislature to amend these initiatives now, before letting them take effect, would be to once again ‘sidestep the people’s reserved power,’ Bagenstos wrote, referencing another law also planned to take effect Friday.

That law guarantees all non-federal workers in Michigan the right to at least some paid time off. How much that would be depends on how many hours they work and the size of their employer.

Business groups say wording in the law would create too much new paperwork for companies and not include enough accountability to make sure people don’t skip work without any warning.

House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp) said any compromise with Democrats needs to include exceptions for small businesses and seasonal workers, limit who can sue an employer, and include more accountability.

Hall also wants it to be more clear that businesses can offer the required sick time up front and not have to worry about doing the math to see how much sick time someone earns based on hours worked.

“I think we’re laying out things that we need to protect in order to do a deal here,” Hall told reporters during a press conference Wednesday.

Like with the minimum wage bill, however, some Democrats are promising opposition, saying people should be able to stay home if they’re sick, regardless of how many coworkers they have.

When asked what he’s hoping to get out of any compromise legislation, House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton) said he’s just trying to watch out for Michigan workers.

“There’s been a very false choice presented where we have to pick between business and workers. And I don’t think that that is the reality of the situation here,” Puri told reporters.

The main sick leave policy bill is currently before the state Senate, which is expected to take up a vote on the measure Thursday in what could end up being a long session day.

The House would likely still need to agree to whatever compromise changes the Senate could introduce before the sick leave bill goes to the governor as well.

Both the sick leave and minimum wage bills are tie-barred together, meaning neither can take effect unless both become law.