Restaurant owners across Michigan are watching closely as the state Legislature inches toward a tipped wage and paid sick leave deal to avoid sweeping changes on February 21. Among them is Dan McCrery, the owner of Tosi’s Restaurant in Stevensville.
McCrery tells us he wishes the state would listen to the owners of affected businesses before it implements drastic policy changes. He says the Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association fought hard on behalf of members to get lawmakers to a compromise.
“The world evolves and the world will change, and a little bit of change is okay,” McCrery said. “I mean, we can adapt with that, but we’re an 86-year-old restaurant. We’re probably, if not the oldest one in the Southwestern Lower Michigan, and I really wish that before all these things could pass and everything could go, I wish they really would take the time to sit with business owners of different statures, whether that’s restaurants, bars, diners.”
The deal reached on Thursday will mean a slight wage increase for restaurants, but McCrery says it’s “nothing to bark about.” While his staff has been nervous, he says he’s told them not to get too distracted as the process worked itself out.
As far as Southwest Michigan lawmakers, McCrery says state Senator Aric Nesbitt has been “wonderful,” going out of his way to reach out and learn what Tosi’s was thinking.
