LANSING, Mich. – A pair of bills that impacts hundreds of thousands of Michigan workers, their pay, and their health now await Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s signature.
The compromise bills preserve the state’s tipped wage credit, tweak minimum wage increases, and change how employers handle paid sick leave.
---> Update: What to know as governor signs minimum wage, sick leave bills into law
The new minimum wage and paid sick leave laws will take effect on Friday, Feb. 21, 2025.
Lawmakers had been racing against the clock to modify those laws ahead of Friday.
The two bills are tied together, so they both need to pass to be enacted into law.
If Whitmer signs them, they will take immediate effect.
Sick leave bill
The paid sick leave bill defines a small business as an employer with 10 or fewer employees.
Small businesses would be required to provide 40 hours of paid sick time, compared to 72 hours for all other employers.
It would allow small businesses to implement the law by Oct. 1, 2025.
New businesses would have a three-year grace period.
Workers would be required to provide a 7-day notice for foreseeable absences.
Employees would have to provide notification as soon as practicable for unforeseeable absences.
Minimum wage bill
Senate Bill 8, which aims to halt a court-ordered phase-out of the lower minimum wage for tipped workers, was approved last week by the Senate.
The bill calls for the tipped minimum wage to remain at 38% of the standard minimum wage this year. It would rise annually, topping out at 50% in 2031.
Under the legislation, Friday’s standard minimum wage would still rise to $12.48 per hour. But it would reach $15 an hour by 2027 instead of 2028.
Current law requires tipped workers to be paid 48% of the minimum hourly wage starting Friday, which will rise to 100% in 2030.
Senate Bill 8 has been met with mixed emotions. The restaurant industry has expressed approval, while labor groups have expressed discontent, viewing it as a betrayal of workers.
