LANSING – Michigan workers are about to get a pay raise courtesy the Michigan Supreme Court. In a 4-3 decision issued Wednesday, the state’s high court ruled that, when the State Legislature blocked a pair of initiatives surrounding the state’s minimum wage laws to keep them off the ballot back in 2018, they were acting unconstitutionally.
The Republican-controlled Legislature at the time approved two petition-backed initiatives before election day that year, then came back later in the year and weakened the policies.
“In sum, by adopting the Wage Act and the Earned Sick Time Act and then later stripping those acts of their key features in the same legislative session, the Legislature unconstitutionally violated the people’s initiative rights,” Justice Elizabeth Welch wrote in authoring the majority opinion Wednesday. “Accordingly, we hold that the Amended Wage Act and the Amended Earned Sick Time Act are unconstitutional.”
That means workers will see an increase in the hourly minimum wage and new paid sick leave levels.
The Supreme Court’s decision puts the original minimum wage and paid leave proposals into effect Feb. 21. The citizen-initiated proposals set the minimum wage at $10 an hour, with increases to be phased in later.
The Supreme Court ruling, Michigan’s current $10.33-an-hour minimum wage will increases the $10.33-per-hour minimum wage by at least $2 an hour on Feb. 21, because the justices added an inflationary adjustment, which will be calculated by the state treasurer, to the $10 rate, The Detroit News reported.
However, Michigan’s minimum wage will continue to increase in the next three years, then be tied to inflation. Michigan’s minimum wage is expected to reach about $15 an hour by 2028, The News reported..
Likewise, the tipped minimum wage will go to 48% of the traditional minimum wage next year, likely around $6 an hour. It’s currently $3.93 an hour.
Under the initiative and the court ruling, the tipped minimum wage will gradually move to 100% of the regular minimum wage over five years following 2025. Originally, that was supposed to have happened from 2019 to 2024.
Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage, called Wednesday “a great day for more than 494,000 workers in Michigan who are getting a raise.”
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