In a move the state’s restaurant industry warns will likely prompt the closing of 20% of the state’s dining facilities, the Michigan Supreme Court overruled the Republican adopt-and-amend legislative maneuver employed in 2018.

Under adopt and amend, the legislators adopted a proposed minimum wage hike scheduled for Michigan’s November 2018 ballot. Once passed and signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder, the legislature passed a law gradually raising the state’s $9.25 minimum wage to $12 hourly by 2022. During that year’s lame duck session, legislators amended the law to raise the minimum wage to $12.05 hourly by 2030. It also halted a proposal that would have forced employers to pay “subminimum” tipped workers minimum wages.

According to a statement issued by One Fair Wage, a group supporting the new minimum wage, tipped workers’ wages will increase from $3.84 hourly to $12 hourly, which OFW claims will benefit 494,000 restaurant workers in Michigan.

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“This is a great day for the more than 494,000 workers in Michigan who are getting a raise,” OFW President Saru Jayaraman said in a statement. “We have finally prevailed over the corporate interests who tried everything they could to prevent all workers, including restaurant workers, from being paid a full, fair wage with tips on top.”

The Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association, however, doubts those numbers will ever be reached. According to a survey it conducted, the new wage structure will result in 66% of owners laying off employees and 20% of restaurants saying they would be force to shut their doors. Another 42% said they’d be forced to cut their operating hours and 92% of restaurants would be forced to hike prices by 20% to 25% by early 2025.

“The ramifications of this decision will be deep and felt by job providers and workers alike,” Wendy Block, senior vice president of business advocacy for the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement. “It’s difficult to imagine how our state’s restaurants and hospitality establishments will absorb this large of an increase in their labor costs or how employers will make the required sweeping and costly changes to their leave policies without drastically cutting back elsewhere.”

The Supreme Court rejected the adopt and amend strategy by a 4-3 vote. Justices Elizabeth Clement, David Viviano and Brian Zahra dissented.

“There is certainly reason to be frustrated by the Legislature’s actions here: enacting laws proposed by initiative petition to avoid ballot approval only to substantially alter them in the same legislative session,” Clement wrote in her dissent. “But nothing in Article 2, § 9 restricts the Legislature from doing so. And as tempting as it might be to step into the breach, this Court lacks the power to create restrictions out of whole cloth. That power remains with the people, as our Constitution dictates.”

A statement issued by State Rep. Cam Cavitt, R-Cheboygan, noted servers, bartenders, and waitstaff frequently earn more on tips than they would with a higher minimum wage.

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“The Supreme Court got this wrong, plain and simple,” Cavitt said. “Judicial activists on the court disagreed with the common-sense solutions the people’s representatives developed, so they took it upon themselves to jam through a radical liberal agenda anyway. This decision will close family restaurants that have been around for generations. The food service ‘first jobs’ we all relied on in high school will disappear. People will suffer because a few stuffy judges decided they wanted to play politician for a day.”

House Republican Leader Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, on Wednesday also issued a statement after the Supreme Court ruling.

“The Legislature must return to the Capitol immediately, because this decision will completely disrupt the livelihoods of hard-working Michiganders,” Hall said. “Restaurants and other small businesses will have to raise their prices, tipped workers will take home less pay, and some people will lose their jobs. The court has ruled, and now it’s time for the people’s representatives to take action.”

Noting that the changes are scheduled to go into effect Feb. 21, 2025, Hall added:“While Democrats are out on the campaign trail, servers and bartenders are still hard at work. But they might be on the unemployment line soon if Democrats don’t come back and help House Republicans save Michigan jobs.”