Supporters of increases in earned sick time rally on the Michigan Capitol steps. Jan. 29, 2025. Photo by Jon King
As the clock ticks down toward a Feb. 21 deadline set by a Michigan Supreme Court ruling to implement ballot initiative reforms on the state’s minimum wage and earned sick time laws, hearings got underway Wednesday in the Michigan Senate on legislation to pare back the measures.
Last year’s Michigan Supreme Court decision determined that the then-GOP-controlled Legislature acted unconstitutionally in 2018 when it adopted and then gutted citizen-led ballot initiatives to increase Michigan’s minimum wage and create sick leave requirements for employers.
In January, the GOP-controlled House passed bills with bipartisan support curtailing the 2018 laws, with Republicans arguing they would hurt businesses, particularly restaurants. This week marks the first action in the Democratic-led Senate.
Minimum wage and sick leave bills clear Michigan House with bipartisan support after heated debate
The Senate Regulatory Affairs Committee focused its attention Wednesday to the earned sick time provision, which if unaltered, would require employers with fewer than 10 employees to offer up to 40 hours of paid sick leave and 32 hours of unpaid leave while businesses with 10 or more employees must offer a full 72 hours of paid sick leave.
“I want to start off first, by acknowledging the frustration that many of us feel about even being in this position today, and that frustration is warranted because this conversation, this public debate, should have happened years ago back in 2018 when the people of Michigan first made their voices heard on this issue, but that full and open discussion didn’t happen,” said the committee’s chair, state Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield), at the opening of the hearing.
The committee heard testimony on Senate Bill 15, sponsored by state Sen. Sam Singh (D-East Lansing), which would raise the definition of a small business from less than 10 employees to less than 25 employees. Those small businesses would then have to provide employees with 40 hours of paid sick leave and 30 hours of unpaid sick leave at the beginning of the year, instead of the 40 hours of paid leave and 32 hours of unpaid leave accrued through the year. It would also provide employers the option to provide workers a minimum of 72 hours of paid earned sick time at the beginning of a year.
Singh was the first to testify, and said his bill made an earnest effort to honor the intent of the ballot initiative as well as address concerns expressed by employers.
“What we’ve talked about in our bill, Senate Bill 15, is that we still want to live up to the commitment that was about to go in front of the voters in 2018, which was that every employee should be provided some access to paid earned leave. And so this does. This policy is very consistent with states across the country that have a small business definition that 40 [hours] is typically where they’re at. I do want to remind people that two states recently had this on their ballot in November, Missouri and Alaska. They both passed these initiatives.”
State Sen. Dan Lauwers (R-Brockway) questioned Singh whether the modifications made by the bill would be sufficient to avoid small business owners experiencing adverse effects, especially as it pertains to provisions about giving employers notice of using earned sick time.
Singh’s bill provides that employees whose need for time off is foreseeable, such as for a doctor’s appointment, can be required to provide seven days notice. But for instances where that is not the case, such as a sudden illness, they are required “to give notice of the intention as soon as practicable.” The only exception would be for employers with mandated staffing ratios.
Lauwers worried that the language was not clear enough for employers with a small workforce.
“Probably the greatest concern that I hear from my constituents and even myself, I think [is] ‘How do I run my place?,’” he said. “I ran a business that started with one employee and eventually grew up into the twenties, but for years I was 50% to 33% of the employee force. Had two of my employees decided to stay home because they’re sick or [to] take care of a loved one or whatever it was, [it] would have probably shut me down for the day. But had I had some kind of notice, even the night before. … I could probably call on a family member or something, and I think that probably is representative of a lot of really small businesses.”
Singh responded that the language about “practicable” notice was taken from the federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which was passed by Congress in 1993.
Sean Egan, the deputy director of labor with the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, was asked about the potential for workers to exploit the notification requirement’s language.
“There’s nothing in this act that prevents an employer from disciplining employees that are abusing any kind of system. The protections in this act that relate to the advanced notice or even as soon as practical are not all encompassing. We use the FMLA that I mentioned has had that language since it came into effect,” said Egan. “They have as soon as practical. There’s already litigation that’s defined.”
Danielle Atkinson is the founding director of Mothering Justice, which helped lead the effort to place the earned sick time initiative on the ballot and get it passed. Atkinson said her organization was adamantly opposed to SB 15.
“Michigan families are experiencing the most difficult economic times of their life and are threatened with attacks on Medicaid and the entire social safety net. This proposed legislation before us is not a compromise and it’s not a starting point for negotiation. In effect, it would be stripping workers of their hard won rights,” she said.
Atkinson said by redefining the size of a small business from 10 to 25 employees, Singh’s legislation would result in the vast majority of Michigan workers not being covered to the extent that they would be covered if the law went into effect as is on Feb. 21.
“The harsh reality is that hundreds and thousands of Michigan workers lack even a single earned sick time,” she said. “Black workers are disproportionately affected, being 60% more likely to not have access to paid leave. This bill would not only further the disparities in leave by race and by gender, every time we create exceptions and loopholes for business size, we are hurting very vulnerable populations.”
Not mentioned at Wednesday’s hearing was a set of GOP-sponsored legislation that passed the Republican-led House last month and would also address the minimum wage and earned sick time provisions, by essentially gutting them.
House Bills 4001 and 4002 would undo much of what is set to go into effect on Feb. 21, by completely exempting employers with 50 employees or less from the new requirements, while eliminating language that would permit employees to take civil action if their employer violates the law.
It would also drastically alter the minimum wage provisions set to take effect. If no action is taken, the state’s minimum wage would immediately increase to $12.48 an hour, and then rise in phases to $14.97 by 2028, while also slowly eliminating the lower tipped wage rate so parity would be reached for all workers by 2030.
The Republican-sponsored legislation, however, would keep the tipped wage at 38% of the state minimum wage, while delaying by almost a year the proposed increases to the minimum wage, so that instead of reaching $14.97 by Feb. 21, 2028, it would increase to $15 at the start of 2029. Additionally, the wage rate for employees under 18 would drop from 85% to 75% of the minimum wage.
Those bills are unlikely to get approval in the Democratic-controlled Senate, while the Republican-controlled House will be reluctant to approve Singh’s legislation, as well as Senate Bills 6, 7, and 8, which would accelerate the increase of Michigan’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2027, while keeping the tipped credit at 38% for the remainder of 2025, then gradually increasing and capping it at 60% over 10 years.
They would also allow workers to file anonymous complaints against employers, while prohibiting the misclassification of workers as “independent contractors,” preventing a wage being paid that is lower than the legal minimum.
With that standoff in full view, and just over two weeks until the initial provisions take effect, opponents of the ballot initiatives called on lawmakers to find common ground.
“Time is ticking for the Legislature to act before small businesses are left with a costly mandate they simply cannot afford,” said Amanda Fisher, the Michigan state director of NFIB, which advocates for small and independent businesses. “We are encouraged that the Senate has chosen to engage on this issue and start the process of finding agreement with the House on common sense changes to ESTA.”
Moss indicated that a follow-up hearing on the legislation would be set for next week.
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