Minimum Wage ruling by Court

Did Michigan’s minimum wage just rise to $12-an-hour because of a court ruling?

$12/hour.

By Ben Orner | borner@mlive.com

A Tuesday evening Michigan Court of Claims decision ruled the state legislature unlawfully softened a 2018 ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage and require earned paid sick leave when it enacted the proposal with smaller pay bumps.

But does that really mean Michigan’s minimum wage increased from $9.87 to $12 – and the tipped wage from $3.75 to $9.60 – literally overnight? The state’s labor agency says not yet.

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In 2018, the Republican-controlled legislature chose to enact and amend a ballot initiative increasing the minimum wage and paid sick leave instead of let it appear before voters in November.

The original would have allowed 72 hours of paid leave yearly, plus increased the minimum wage to $12 by 2022 and the minimum tipped wage to $9.60 by then. But lawmakers scaled those back to 40 hours of leave and a $12 minimum wage by 2030.

Court of Claims Judge Douglas Shapiro ruled Tuesday that it was unconstitutional when the legislature adopted the law in September 2018 then amended it after the election in the same legislative session.

“To hold otherwise would effectively thwart the power of the people to initiate laws and then vote on those same laws — a power expressly reserved to the people in the Michigan Constitution,” Shapiro wrote.



More: https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2022/07/michigans-minimum-wage-will-go-up-if-new-court-ruling-stands.html