The Michigan House is set to vote Wednesday on legislation intended to dial back a minimum wage increase resulting from a state Supreme Court ruling last year.
The court’s ruling would mean the minimum wage will go up in February, but it also would begin moving tipped workers toward the same minimum wage as anyone else. State Representative Brad Paquette, a Republican, tells us he supports slowing that increase down, but there’s still more discussion to be had.
“The minimum wage is set to increase very rapidly, and so it kind of sets that out on a longer timeline as well,” Paquette said. “But I’m also trying to be in contact with some of the folks that have reached out about this to see if these bills will remedy the problem for them enough.”
State Representative Joey Andrews, a Democrat, says he supports addressing the concerns of small businesses and approving a fix. However, he’s not so sure about the current package.
“There’s two bills in the package, and the bill that has the tip credit fix in it also would reduce the minimum wage from what it’s at currently, and really slow down the minimum wage increases over the next several years,” Andrews said. “So I can’t really vote for a wage decrease, and so I think it’s unfortunate that they’ve paired those two issues together.”
Also, Paquette says the court ruling will essentially make it possible for workers to not show up for work without calling in. That’s the other thing the current package of legislation aims to address.
Andrews suspects the package receiving a vote Wednesday may fail in the state Senate, forcing Republicans and Democrats to work toward a compromise before the February deadline.
