After a court decision drastically alters the state’s rules next month, Michigan politicians are working against the time to make changes to turned wages and paid sick leave.
On Feb. 21, the state’s minimum wage will gradually begin to increase each year until it reaches$ 14.97 per hour by 2028. Following a court decision last year that the state’s adjustments to the 2018 Wage Act and Earned Sick Time Act were unconstitutional, the turned minimum salary may increase annually until it reaches the equivalent of the regular minimum wage in 2030.
House Republicans in the state have introduced legislation that would ease the current law’s expansion to$ 15 per hour by 2029, increase overtime pay for tipped workers, and establish additional limits on paid sick leave.
Both pieces of legislation, House Bills 4001 and 4002, passed with the support of all Republicans and some Democrats last week in the House, and Republicans from the lower chamber want the Democrat-controlled Senate to act quickly.
” If we don’t act, these changes will have a catastrophic impact. The cost of paying for payroll will be increased on to customers. As prices rise, fewer people will choose to eat out, pushing many restaurants to cut hours, reduce staffing, or even shut down entirely”, Republican state Rep. John Roth said last week.
” These troubling circumstances make it all the more crucial that the Senate does not dither when considering these bills. This doesn’t need to be a divisive issue. Similar events like today demonstrate the viability of bipartisan cooperation. Republican state Representative Donni Steele said in a statement on the bills that he and his colleagues in the Senate should follow our lead and cross the aisle to accomplish this.
Bipartisan bills that had the same goals as those that were approved last week were being considered in the legislature last year during the lame-duck session but failed to pass. Republican state Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt demanded that the chamber consider the legislation as it was being sent to the state Senate for consideration.
The first vote in the new Republican House was to save 60 000 hospitality jobs after Democrats for months refused to act. Senate Democrats ought to approve these bipartisan bills right away, Nesbitt wrote on X.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks expressed last week that she believes there will be a “balance” in the forthcoming changes to tipped wages and paid sick leave, but she resisted a portion of the House GOP’s proposal.
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” But I want to be clear: I will not rubber-stamp a plan that takes earned sick leave away from a million Michiganders”, Brinks said, according to the Detroit News.
There are only 11 more session days for the chamber before the state Senate’s scheduled session ends on Tuesday, when the changes to tipped wages will take effect.
