GOP-led Michigan House votes to curb paid sick leave, tipped wage laws

Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News on Jan 23, 2025

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LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan House approved bills Thursday that would retain the state's tipped wage for restaurant workers and limit the reach of paid sick leave laws that are set to take effect on Feb. 21.

The tipped wage bill was approved in a 63-41 vote, while the paid sick leave bill passed 67-38, getting support from a few Democrats. The votes in the GOP-led House came after a six-month push to change the law following a July 31 Michigan Supreme Court order that overturned 2018 efforts to rein in the law and gave the legislation full effect.

The bills, sponsored by Republican state Reps. John Roth of Interlochen and Jay DeBoyer of Clay Township, move next to the Democratic-led Senate, which earlier this month introduced its own version of paid sick leave and tipped wage legislation.

State Rep. Jamie Thompson, R-Brownstown Township, said immediate action on the legislation was critical to curb the decision of an "activist Supreme Court."

"If we do not act today, servers and bartenders will begin losing their tips on Feb. 21 and our workers and small business owners are going to have to navigate a sick leave mandate that even lawyers are unable to figure out," Thompson said.

House Democrats offered more than a dozen amendments to the bills, each seeking to retain some measure of the wage schedule and paid sick leave rules that are set to go into effect on Feb. 21. None of the amendments were adopted in the Republican-controlled House.

State Rep. Helena Scott, D-Detroit, argued the House's efforts to scale back the full effect of the laws would amount to “another assault on Michigan’s hard working families.”

"This keeps workers trapped in jobs that do not pay enough to cover groceries or other living expenses," Scott said.

House Republicans' proposals would gradually increase the traditional minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2029 and would keep the tipped wage at 38% of Michigan's minimum wage. The House Republican bills related to paid sick leave would limit the policy to affect only employers with more than 50 workers.

One Fair Wage, a group that helped to the organize the minimum wage increase, threatened to collect signatures for a referendum that would repeal the law if the Michigan Legislature and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer chose to make changes.

Under the July 31 Supreme Court order, Michigan's hourly minimum wage is slated to increase 42% from $10.56 an hour to about $15 an hour by 2028, while the minimum wage for workers who receive tips will gradually be increased annually from $4.01 an hour — 38% of the standard minimum wage — to about $15 an hour by 2030.

The laws, first introduced as ballot initiatives in 2018, were given full effect by a Michigan Supreme Court ruling in July after a protracted legal battle over Republican efforts in 2018 to curb the laws. The high court set a deadline of Feb. 21 for the laws to begin taking effect.

Senate Democrats and House Republicans last week introduced competing legislation meant to address the pending increase to the tipped wage and minimum wage and alter the state's paid sick leave laws.

In the Democratic-controlled Senate, state Sen. Kevin Hertel, D-St. Clair Shores, has authored legislation that would increase the traditional minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2027, while keeping the tipped wage at 38% of the standard rate in 2025. Then Hertel's measure would gradually increase the tipped minimum wage to 60% of the traditional minimum wage over a 10-year period.

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