Beginning February 21, 2025 all small businesses operating in the State of Michigan will be subject to new minimum wage and paid sick leave requirements.
These rules are the result of a decision by the Michigan Supreme Court on July 31, 2024.
Read SBAM President & CEO Brian Calley’s statement.
Barring a legislative solution, starting on February 21, 2025, all employers in the state of Michigan will be subject to new rules:
Michigan’s current minimum wage is $10.33/hour. This decision sets a new schedule for increases in the minimum wage, but the calculation set forth is very complex.
While we will pursue estimates in the coming days, we will have to wait for the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity to know exactly what those increases will amount to.
Michigan law allows employers to pay tipped employees 38% of the minimum wage as long as they earn at least the standard minimum wage with tips included. Most end up earning far more than minimum wage, which is why recent surveys show that 83% of servers do not want the system to change.
Under this decision, the tipped wage will be phased out and service workers will fall under the regular minimum wage system.
This decision from the Court requires all employers, including those with fewer than 50 employees, to offer accrual-based paid sick leave to all employees, including part-time. It will require nearly every employer to make changes to the way they accrue sick time. View this grid to read the specific requirements.
We urge lawmakers to act swiftly but deliberately to protect small business owners from the fallout of this unfortunate ruling.
Send a letter to your representatives in Lansing to tell them how you are impacted.
Prior to the 2018 election, advocates introduced voter initiatives mandating employer-provided paid sick time and a $12 per hour minimum wage. These proposals gathered requisite signatures to appear on the 2018 ballot. However, Michigan’s Constitution mandates that initiatives amending statute first appear before the legislature prior to appearing on the ballot. The legislature adopted the proposals and later amended them to lessen the impact. This action, now called “adopt and amend,” prevented the original proposals from appearing on the ballot. Those who gathered initial signatures filed a lawsuit and raised the legal question of whether a legislature can amend a voter-initiated statute that it adopted within the same two-year legislative term in which it was adopted.
The trial court found in favor of the plaintiffs, saying the ‘adopt and amend’ practice was unconstitutional. The court of appeals disagreed and upheld the practice. The final decision rests in the hands of the Michigan Supreme Court, who announced Wednesday, July 31, 2024, that the legislature’s actions were unconstitutional, meaning that the initially adopted ballot language is now law.