Michigan’s then Republican-led legislature pulled a fast one in 2018.
Supporters gathered enough signatures to place a measure on the November 2018 ballot that would raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2022 and eliminate the subminimum wage for tipped workers. Under a quirk of Michigan law, once enough signatures are gathered, the state legislature has the option to simply adopt the measure rather than put it to a vote. Republican lawmakers did that, then waited until after the election and voted to repeal what they adopted.
Outraged supporters of the measure filed suit saying that trick was unconstitutional. The case took six years to get to the Michigan Supreme Court, but on July 31, the court ruled 3-2 that lawmakers had unconstitutionally subverted the ballot measure process and ordered the measure to take effect Feb. 21, 2025.
As a result, minimum-wage workers in Michigan will get a raise of at least $2 an hour, and tipped workers will have the same minimum wage as other workers by 2029.
