John Partipilo for States Newsroom
The Michigan Supreme Court’s recent ruling on minimum and tipped wages was a huge win for working Michiganders, especially Michigan women, who continue to be overrepresented in low-paid work and are still making far less money than men on average in our state and country.
According to a recent fact sheet released by the National Partnership for Women & Families, Michigan had the 10th widest gender wage gap in the country at 30 cents per dollar in 2023, meaning women were paid just 70 cents for every dollar that men were paid last year.
And things are not much better nationally, with women typically earning 75 cents for every dollar that men earned in 2023. What’s worse is that pay gaps for women of color are shown to be even more extensive, and, from 2022 to 2023, our country’s overall gender wage gap widened for the first time in 20 years. On average, women working in the U.S. lose a combined total of almost $1.7 trillion every year because of the gender wage gap.
Michigan Supreme Court hears arguments about changing minimum wage
While this data is bleak at best and shows just how far we need to go before women — especially women of color — are able to participate equally in our economy, there is some hope on Michigan’s horizon.
After six long years of fighting to rectify an egregious injustice, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled this past summer that the 2018 Michigan Legislature acted unconstitutionally when it blocked popular proposals on minimum wage and earned paid sick time from appearing on the ballot.
The proposals, which had been polling at over a 70% approval rating, were instead adopted by the Legislature serving at that time and then gutted in the lame-duck session that followed that November’s election. This adopt-and-amend scheme was nothing short of a bait-and-switch that circumvented the will of the people and eroded people’s trust in our state government.
With the Michigan Supreme Court’s recent ruling, the minimum wage is now slated to be raised to $12.48 an hour next February, up from $10.33, and should reach almost $15 an hour by 2028. Employers will also be required to provide their employees either 40 or 72 hours of paid sick time each year, depending on the number of workers they employ.
Additionally, the base rate for tipped employees is slated to increase to $5.95 an hour next February, up from just $3.93, and will continue to increase over the next several years until it is brought above the subminimum level. Michigan will then become a one fair wage state, with tipped workers making the same pay as minimum wage workers on top of the tips they make.
Raising our state’s minimum and tipped wages is one critical way to mitigate poverty in our state, while also narrowing Michigan’s dismal gender wage gap. The tipped wage increase will be especially meaningful for women, who make up 74.3% of the share of tipped workers in Michigan.
And despite what adversaries of the recent ruling have disingenuously said, tipped workers do stand to benefit from the elimination of the tipped wage, as has been the case in other one fair wage states. In fact, according to the Center for American Progress, tipped workers in states that have already established one fair minimum wage have done as well as or better than their counterparts in states that still have subminimum tipped wages. The reason why seems pretty simple to us: Customers are continuing to tip based on the service they receive and workers are making more in base pay in addition to their tips.
And while all tipped and minimum wage employees stand to benefit from the changes ahead, they will be the most meaningful for workers who are holding down multiple jobs just to get by and workers who are taking slower shifts at smaller businesses where they make very little in tips. These hardworking Michiganders deserve to make enough money to afford the basic things that they and their families need to survive. And they also deserve to be able to take time off when they are sick without fear of losing their job or income.
Crystal Coleman, a food service worker in Detroit, was one of many Michigan workers who joined our organizations and several other partners across the state in applauding the Supreme Court’s decision this past summer.
“This win means the world to me! This will be told for generations, and its positive impact will certainly ripple through my and my children’s children,” Coleman said. “I hope I don’t have to fight anymore for every penny and work much longer hours to survive. I hope I don’t have to choose between my paycheck and my health. This is a great step to lift us out of poverty and reclaim the American Dream.”
For all workers, especially women, this is a huge step forward for Michigan. Here at the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Michigan and the Michigan League for Public Policy we are continuing to celebrate this historic ruling and we look forward to how the changes ahead will help to address pay inequities in our state, while also creating stronger economic security for workers and families.
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