Last week, the Michigan House passed two harmful, anti-worker bills that seek to weaken earned paid sick time and minimum wage protections slated to take effect this February for hardworking Michiganders.

House Bills 4001 and 4002 would not only cause significant harm to Michigan workers and their families, they also fly in the face of the Michigan Supreme Court, which ruled last year that the 2018 Michigan Legislature acted unconstitutionally when it blocked two popular proposals on minimum wage and earned paid sick time from appearing on that November’s ballot.

The proposals, which were polling at more than a 70% approval rating, were instead adopted prior to the election and then gutted during that year’s lame duck session.

Last year’s court ruling was the culmination of a six-year legal fight to rectify an egregious injustice, and, as a result, Michigan’s minimum wage is slated to be raised to $12.48 an hour this February and will continue to annually increase, reaching almost $15 an hour by 2028.

The tipped minimum wage will also be raised to $5.99 an hour next month and will continue to annually increase until it is brought above the subminimum level in 2030.

Additionally, Michigan employers will be required to provide either 40 or 72 hours of paid sick time each year to their employees, depending on how many people they employ.

Nevertheless, those important and hard-fought worker protections will be significantly gutted, yet again, if the Michigan Senate follows the lead of the Michigan House and passes HBs 4001 and 4002.

HB 4001 proposes an alternative minimum wage schedule to that which is slated to take effect this February — one that would effectively cut the annual pay of Michigan workers by $1,000 to $2,400 over the next several years and delay our state from reaching a $15 minimum wage until 2029.

The bill would also maintain subminimum tipped wages, keeping them at 38% of the minimum wage.

That damaging bill comes at a time when Michigan’s wages continue to lag behind inflation and nearly half of Michigan households — 41% — are struggling to make ends meet.

It also comes at a time when our state’s gender wage gap is one of the worst in the country and will only further exacerbate pay inequities in our state, given that women and especially women of color are overrepresented in low-paying jobs and 74.3% of all tipped workers in Michigan are women.

According to our latest U.S. Census data, the gender wage gaps in Alpena, Montmorency, Alcona and Presque Isle counties were 87 cents, 76 cents, 78 cents and 70 cents per dollar, respectively, in 2023.

Increasing the minimum wage and bringing tipped wages above the subminimum level will go a long way in mitigating those ongoing pay disparities in our local communities and state.

Establishing a single fair minimum wage will also provide a more stable base income for service industry workers who are earning inconsistent week-to-week tips, making paying their bills more difficult during slower times of the year. That is especially important for tipped workers in rural communities, where businesses may have smaller customer bases than those in urban communities, as well as tipped workers in tourist communities, where the customer base significantly drops during certain seasons.

Meanwhile, HB 4002 proposes to exempt the vast majority — 96% — of Michigan businesses from having to provide earned paid sick time provisions to their employees, which will effectively strip those important protections away from nearly 1.5 million Michigan workers.

Without those protections, many workers will have to continue to decide between going without pay or going to work sick, both of which are unsafe choices that can have serious consequences for economic security and public health.

We believe — and we are sure many others would agree — that it remains as important today as it did during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to provide paid sick time for all workers in order to prevent contagious illnesses from spreading in workplaces, schools, and public spaces. And nobody should have to choose between taking care of themselves or keeping the lights on at home.

A January 2025 poll released by Progress Michigan shows that the majority of Michiganders — both Democrats and Republicans — support the minimum wage and earned paid sick time laws slated to take effect this February.

If you agree that those laws should take effect as ruled on by the Michigan Supreme Court, we hope you will consider joining us and our partners in telling members of the Michigan Senate to reject HBs 4001 and 4002 and any similar legislation.

They need to hear your voices.