A change to the state’s minimum wage might be on the 2018 ballot.
One Fair Wage wants to raise Michigan’s minimum wage to 12-dollars an hour within four years. It also wants to increase the minimum wage for tipped workers.
Restaurateurs aren’t happy about the proposal. Some are concerned the increase won’t be possible with already tight budgets.
Justin Winslow is with the Michigan Restaurant Association. He says the minimum wage is already scheduled to keep rising. And Michigan will have a high minimum wage compared to the rest of the country.
“So to go to 12-dollars an hour will put us in a very disadvantageous position.”
He says right now, tipped workers generally make upwards of 15-dollars an hour.
“It’s a bit of a misnomer by any stretch to suggest that a tipped employee is ever making three-dollars and thirty-eight cents an hour. They’re not. If it is a particularly slow shift, an employer supplements that to make sure they’re making the bare minimum wage of eight-ninety.”
Some restaurant owners are against the wage increase.
Winslow says restaurants already operate on a tight budget.
“Dramatic increases to their bottom line have negative impacts to those that actually are taking those jobs but also the owners of those establishments as well.”
A representative from the ballot initiative group says the increase is needed to help workers meet their basic needs.