Just minutes before the date changed to Feb. 21, state lawmakers completed the final step on the earned sick time and minimum wage bills.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed both bills on Friday, hours after they arrived at her desk.
House Speaker Matt Hall, a Republican representing Richland Township, participated in the behind-the-scenes dealmaking.
“Well, it is tough because you are trying to represent a group of other people in the negotiations, and not everybody gets to negotiate. There is a leader for the Republicans and a leader for the Democrats who are negotiating,” Hall said.
The new laws amend those that went into effect on Feb. 21 due to a Michigan Supreme Court ruling last summer.
The court concluded that the Republican-controlled legislature acted unconstitutionally in 2018 when they adopted the minimum wage and paid sick leave ballot initiatives and later watered them down.
State Senator Kevin Hertel, a Democrat whose district includes all five Grosse Pointes and St. Clair Shores, sponsored the Senate minimum wage bill that took effect.
Hertel explained why lawmakers could now amend the minimum wage and earned sick time laws.
“So what the Supreme Court ruled, and it’s very clear in their ruling that came out last summer, is that the legislature couldn’t adopt and amend the initiative in the same legislative session,” Hertel said.
The Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association celebrated the compromise on the tipped wage.
“With Governor Whitmer’s signature today, thousands of community restaurants and tens of thousands of servers and bartenders can exhale, knowing their voices were heard,” MRLA President & CEO Justin Winslow said in a news release.
Danielle Atkinson, the founding director of Mothering Justice, expressed disappointment with the new paid sick leave law.
The organization in Detroit led the push for the ballot initiative.
“Overall, it is not what Michigan people deserve. It falls short of what we need and what people called for when they signed ballot petitions,” Atkinson said.
Atkinson said the law doesn’t include the right of private action, which would allow employees to sue their employers directly for possible violations of the Earned Sick Time Act.
“We know that is a mechanism that ensures that businesses will comply with the law because it is such a threat. Without that, people are vulnerable,” Atkinson said.