March for Workers’ Rights and Economic Justice in Detroit on Oct. 19, 2023 | Ken Coleman
Michigan has fallen even further into the bottom half for best states to work in, ranked in 31st place by Oxfam, a global organization focused on inequality and poverty. Michigan was ranked at 26th in 2023.
As it has done each year since 2018, Oxfam released its annual Best States to Work Index ahead of Labor Day, including a database and interactive map that measure policies and programs in place that protect workers’ abilities to organize, maintain wellness and be paid fairly in all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.
In fact, the District of Columbia earned the top spot in the index as the best “state” for workers, followed closely by California (No. 2), Oregon (No. 3), New York (No. 4) and Washington (No. 5). By contrast, North Carolina falls at the very bottom of the index as the worst “state” for the third year in a row, followed by Mississippi (No. 51), Georgia (No. 50), Alabama (No. 49) and South Carolina (No. 48).
“When states invest in strong labor policy landscapes, it pays off in a serious way. Measures of both worker wellbeing and economic outlook are strongly correlated with high placement on our index, and it’s clear these policies benefit everyone,” said Kaitlyn Henderson, report author and senior researcher at Oxfam America. “Continued federal inaction on basic things like living wages and paid leave has trapped millions of families across the U.S. in cycles of working poverty and exacerbated inequality along lines of race, class, and gender. Federal policymakers should take inspiration from the states at the top of our index. We have the models, and we know they work.”
As for Michigan, the Oxfam report noted the state’s minimum wage was just $10.33, or 26.8% of the cost of living for a working family. By comparison, Illinois, which was ranked highest in the Great Lakes region at No. 7, has a minimum wage of $14 per hour, or 34% of what it takes a family of four to cover basic costs in the state. Michigan was also ranked down for not allowing municipalities to independently raise minimum wages, unlike the District of Columbia and California, which were ranked No. 1 and No. 2 respectively.
However, that will soon change after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled on July 31 that the Legislature subverted the rights of citizens in 2018 by using an “adopt-and-amend” strategy to kill two ballot initiatives in the same session. The effect of the decision is that starting in February, the minimum wage will rise significantly and sub-minimum tipped wages will begin to be phased out.
The ruling also affirmed a new paid sick leave policy that will take effect requiring employers with fewer than 10 employees to offer up to 40 hours of paid sick time annually and employers with 10 or more employees to give up to 72 hours.
Paid sick leave was among the policies that the Oxfam report graded each state on, which based its index on 20 policies among three overall categories: wages (40% of overall score); worker protections (35% of overall score); and rights to organize (25% of overall score). All of the data was based on laws and policies that were in effect as of July 1.
Other areas in which Michigan was marked down included a failure to provide a heat safety standard for outdoor workers, providing protections for warehouse workers and failing to maintain child labor protections.
On that last issue, a bill looking to address child labor concerns by updating the state’s process for permitting young workers did receive a hearing earlier this year, but has yet to advance out of committee.
As for heat standards, while the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Act (MIOSHA) does require employers to provide a workplace free of hazards that can cause serious injury or death, which would include extreme heat, Michigan lacks any specific regulation on the subject, while three of the five states at the top of the list (California, Oregon, and Washington) do have specific heat standards for outdoor workers
While Illinois sits atop the Midwest rankings, Michigan places in the middle, outranking Wisconsin at 38th and Indiana at 33rd. Ohio, however, sits well ahead of Michigan in 22nd place, largely due to the Buckeye State’s right-to-organize policies for unions and labor agreements, ranking fifth in the nation in that category. Two policies that Ohio was given credit for, which Michigan lacks, were fully legalizing project labor agreements to ensure a fair wage to workers on contract, and protecting workers against retaliation if they report wage theft.
One state that the report said distinguished itself in 2024 was Minnesota, which was grouped in the Plains region. The report noted that Minnesota had a busy legislative session in 2023 presided over by Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic party’s vice presidential nominee. Since the last Oxfam report, Minnesota laws went into effect that eliminated the subminimum tipped wage, provided paid leave, and created a warehouse worker protection policy, which helped push it up to No. 11 from No. 17 in 2023.
Michigan did, however, score better in the fourth edition of Oxfam’s Best States for Working Women, which ranked states based on policies that either directly or disproportionately support women workers, such as equal pay, flexible scheduling, and paid leave. In that Index, Michigan was ranked No. 26, with policies to provide collective bargaining and wage negotiations to teachers and mandating equal pay across gender and race.
Oregon was ranked as the “best” state for working women, followed by New York (No. 2), California (No. 3), the District of Columbia (No. 4), and Illinois (No. 5).
Oxfam says the Best States to Work Index is meant to “inspire a race to the top” for states by identifying for policymakers areas in need of improvement at both the state and federal levels.
Oxfam recommends policy initiatives to help support workers and their families, including:
Raise Wages: Increase wages at both the state and federal levels. Subminimum tipped wages should be abolished, minimum wage exclusions of certain workers must end, and the minimum wage needs to be lifted.
Strengthen Worker Protections: Enact more robust worker protections at the state and federal levels, including paid family and medical leave, stronger equal pay laws, heat protection standards, paid pumping breaks, and protections for domestic workers.
Protect Rights to Organize: Protect and expand workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain at the federal level. States must repeal Right to Work laws, which undermine worker power; protect public employees’ rights to collectively bargain; and extend organizing rights to excluded workers.
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