Governor Rick Snyder signed Senate Bill 934 into law on Tuesday increasing Michigan’s minimum wage. The new law repeals the current law governing minimum wage and replaces it with a new law that will gradually raise minimum wage in Michigan from the current $7.40 up to $9.25 by 2018. The minimum wage for tipped employees will also increase from $2.65 to $3.23 over that time. In addition, minimum wage will also be tied to inflation after 2018 and will increase accordingly.
Michigan is the first Republican-led legislature to raise minimum wage this year. This is interesting because Republicans typically see minimum wage hikes as bad for businesses and resulting in business closures and layoffs. Even more interesting, at first glance, is that the bill was actually proposed by a Republican.
However, it appears that the bill was introduced by Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, in an effort to stifle a ballot petition that threatened to raise minimum wage even more, to $10.10 an hour. Passage of Senate Bill 934 repealed the law that the ballot petition sought to amend. Therefore, the ballot petition, if passed in November, would amend a law that no longer exists. Whether passage of Senate Bill 934 would render the petition, which has been signed by hundreds of thousands of Michiganders, moot is not entirely clear.
As of now, the reluctant compromise reached by Michigan Republicans and Democrats in passing Senate Bill 934 will govern minimum wage and we will have to wait to see whether November’s vote increases that wage even more.
Businesses should conform their hourly employee wages to the requirements of the new minimum wage law as failure to comply can result in civil liability and potentially a fine from the State.
If you have any questions, please contact the attorneys at Demorest Law Firm, PLLC.
