Michigan Senate Approves Minimum Wage Increase and Guaranteed Sick Days

The new law passed by the Michigan Senate will raise the minimum wage in Michigan to $12 per hour, and allow Michigan workers access to paid sick days. The Senate voted 24 to 13 to pass both bills this week. The House had already passed the bills 78 to 28.

Just because the bills were passed, doesn't mean changes won't be made. According to Fox 17, the Senate Majority Leader says they will consider different options that will make sure Michigan workers are cared for and will still provide economic development.

If nothing changes will these new laws the minimum wage in Michigan will be $12 per hour in 2022. The current minimum wage is $9.25. The plan is to raise that wage to $10 in 2019, $10.65 in 2020, $11.35 in 2021, then $12 in 2022. There will also be yearly inflation increases after 2022.

For sick time in Michigan, under the new law workers will earn one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked. If your company has at least 10 employees you could use up to 72 hours of paid sick time per year. If your company has under 10 employees, you can use up to 32 hours of paid sick time each year.

the biggest change with this new law will be for tipped employees. Michigan workers that currently work for tips are paid $3.52 per hour. With this new law tipped workers would earn minimum wage with all other workers by 2024.

I have questions about the minimum wage law.  I am all for raising the minimum wage for tipped workers, but what will that do to their tips? If you know your server is making $12 per hour, will you still feel compelled to tip them 20 percent? Will tipping remain part of our culture, just at a lesser rate? I would think that a lot of servers average more than $12 per hour now with tips, so if their wage is increased, but we stop tipping they are actually taking a pay cut.

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