The State of Michigan will proceed with a minimum wage increase schedule that will raise the $10.33 current minimum wage in place across the state after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled on the issue in July. In a conversation with Crain’s Detroit Business, Jason Moon, the spokesperson for the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, confirmed that the plan will include an initial jump next year to $12.48 an hour, followed by $14.97 in 2028, with subsequent raises thereafter.
In August, Governor Gretchen Whitmer had requested that the Michigan Supreme Court provide clarity on their previous ruling. The Court had previously ruled on July 31, 2024, to reinstate the 2018 voter-initiated Wage Act, finding that the Michigan Legislature had unconstitutionally altered the law in the same legislative session. In the ruling, the Court ordered that the wage schedule begin to take effect on February 21, 2024, with inflammatory adjustments to account for the five years that had elapsed while litigation unfolded. In the state’s request for clarity, they requested that the Court provide a date from which to compute inflation, which was not provided in the original July 31, 2024, ruling.
In the request for clarity, the state outlined five options to implement the wage hike plan and stated that the state and treasury believed that option 1, as outlined in the brief, was the option that the state believed to be correct. The state provided that if they did not hear from the Court by September 16, 2024, then implementation of option 1 would commence.
On September 18, 2024, the Michigan Supreme Court granted the motions for clarification and immediate consideration and issued an order. In the order, the Court agreed with the proposed plan, and set January 1, 2019, as the starting point to calculate inflation. Under the plan, the minimum wage will increase to $12.48 on February 21, 2025, $13.29 in January 2026, $14.16 in January 2026, and $14.97 in January 2028.
The tipped minimum wage and sick leave portions of the original July 31, 2024 opinion will continue under the Supreme Court’s original ruling from July.
If you have questions about how the new minimum wage changes may affect you or your business, an attorney at Demorest Law Firm may be able to assist you.
See our previous post about the Michigan Supreme Court’s ruling located at https://detroitbusinesslaw.com/2024/08/26/the-michigan-supreme-court-rules-on-minimum-wage-and-mandatory-paid-sick-leave/
For more information, please see the Detroit Free Press article located at https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2024/09/20/minimum-wage-in-michigan-court-ruling-clarifies-increase-for-2025/75289354007/
For more information, please see the Crain’s article located at https://www.crainsdetroit.com/politics-policy/michigan-will-implement-minimum-wage-near-15
