Michigan Senate hearings will begin Wednesday on bills to amend minimum wage and paid sick leave laws that are about to take effect. The bills before the Senate Regulatory Affairs Committee would preempt a Michigan Supreme Court-ordered resolution to a legal challenge. The court struck down a 2018 Republican effort to dilute minimum wage and earned sick leave petition initiatives.
The Michigan Supreme Court set a schedule for increasing the state minimum wage and banking sick leave to comport as closely as possible with the initiatives before they were adopted and then illegally diluted by the GOP-led Legislature in an effort to keep the questions from going to the ballot.
“This should have been a public debate back in 2018 and, instead, due to these shady maneuvers, here we are bringing this before the committee and the Legislature,” said Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield), who chairs the Regulatory Affairs Committee. But he said the solution has created problems and uncertainty about how businesses will comply with all the complexities of the court decision.
“We’re hearing from employers, we’re hearing from employees, we’re from small businesses owners, we’re hearing from workers in the workforce about how this is going to be implemented at the end of the month and the suggestions for changes before it does,” he told Michigan Public Radio.
He said the hearings will also serve as a public forum to, hopefully, negotiate a resolution that is acceptable to all parties. That may prove difficult. The GOP-led House adopted a harder-line plan last month. Also, leaders of the initiative campaigns have argued for letting the Supreme Court’s remedy be the final word.
Moss said the hearings will serve as the debate on minimum wage and sick leave laws that should have taken place in 2018 had the Legislature not acted unconstitutionally. The Senate hearings are expected to continue into next week. The House, which is led by Republicans, adopted a competing plan last month.
