Sam Taub of One Fair Wage speaks against legislation to preserve tipped wage and limit the expansion of paid sick leave in Michigan being presented to the Michigan House Select Committee on Protecting Michigan Employees and Small Businesses on Jan. 14, 2025. (Photo: Anna Liz Nichols)
A majority of Michiganders, including Republicans, support changes to the state’s minimum wage and paid sick leave laws set to take effect next month, per a 2024 state Supreme Court ruling.
That’s according to poll results released Thursday by Progress Michigan asking more than 500 Michigan voters their opinion about the changes which would increase the minimum wage, phase out the tipped wage for service workers and guarantee at least 72 hours of paid sick leave.
“Once again, Michiganders have made it clear that they support strong, pro-worker laws like the minimum wage and sick time rules set to take effect in February,” said Sam Inglot, executive director of Progress Michigan. “Regardless of what tales corporate lobbyists are spinning, the majority of Michiganders want to see these laws go into effect as intended.”
Michigan House panel votes out bills curtailing tipped wage and sick leave laws
The changes are set to take effect on Feb. 21 per a Michigan Supreme Court ruling last year that found the GOP-controlled Legislature subverted the rights of citizens in 2018 when it took up a pair of ballot initiatives on the issues and then amended them in the same session.
However, the Republican-led House on Thursday passed legislation that would keep the tipped wage at 38% of the state minimum wage, abandoning the plan to phase out of the sub-minimum wage rate by 2030. It would also exempt employers with 50 employees or fewer from the new paid sick leave requirements, and eliminates language permitting employees to take civil action if their employer violates the law.
According to the poll, an overwhelming majority of Democrats (80%) and African-American voters (83%) are in support of the minimum wage changes, which would gradually phase out the sub-minimum wage currently paid to tipped workers while increasing the minimum wage for all workers to $15 by 2028.
Similarly, when asked about the changes to the state’s paid sick leave law that would offer workers at businesses with over 10 employees up to 72 hours of earned paid sick leave annually, while small businesses with less than 10 workers would have to offer up to 40 hours of paid sick leave annually, overwhelming majorities of Democrats (83%) and African-American voters (78%) are in support.
However, the poll indicates support for both policy changes is even broader.
A majority of women (62%) also expressed support for the minimum wage reform. A survey last June by the National Women’s Law Center found that women comprise almost three-quarters of tipped workers in Michigan. Female support was even higher (71%) for the paid sick leave change
Even a slim majority of Republicans showed support in the survey for both the changes to minimum wage (51%) and paid sick leave (59%).
“Higher wages and better benefits help workers, families and communities. The right thing to do may not always be the most popular, but in this case the right thing and the popular thing are the same: Our lawmakers must stand up to the corporate agenda and save these basic wage and benefit improvements for working people,” said Inglot.
The results stand in contrast to efforts by the small business and hospitality industry, who have warned that the changes would have a negative impact on both workers and business owners.
The Progress Michigan poll, which had a margin of error of 4.3%, was conducted in concert with Public Policy Polling, which interviewed 513 Michigan voters from Jan. 16 to 17 by phone and text.
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