While Michigan’s small business owners and restaurateurs panic over the looming minimum wage increase and paid sick leave laws, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has hightailed it out of the country on a Mideast trade recruiting trip.
The state’s top official has left business owners in the lurch as the Feb. 21 deadline approaches for the tipped wages dictum, which restaurant owners and servers have vocally opposed for months. House Republicans even walked out of the Chamber during the lame duck session to protest the Democrats’ unwillingness to tackle the issue.
Whitmer is visiting the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, essentially escaping any culpability for the fallout as lawmakers scramble to pass legislation that would overhaul new laws requiring earned sick leave standards and scheduled minimum wage hikes.
Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial
The Republican-controlled Michigan House has already approved bills that would retain the state’s lower minimum wage rate for tipped restaurant workers and limit the reach of the paid sick leave law.
On Tuesday, Sen. Roger Hauck, R-Mount Pleasant, compared Whitmer’s overseas trip ahead of the Feb. 21 deadline to the ancient Roman emperor Nero fiddling while Rome burned, The Detroit News reports.
“She needs to be here,” Hauck said. “Something needs to get done with this.”
Likewise, Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter Township, tweeted, “While Gretchen Whitmer heads to Dubai and leaves Michigan workers in the cold, Republicans will be here fighting for them.”
Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial
In a double whammy for businesses, Whitmer left on her Middle East tour a day after she unveiled Mi Road Ahead to fix the damn roads. This long-term road funding proposal includes massive tax increases for corporations and a wholesale tax on marijuana sales. Whitmer’s office confirmed her Mideast trip on Tuesday morning.
Small business owners have said the mandated minimum wage hikes and paid sick leave will raise their overhead costs and force many to increase menu prices or go out of business. In response, Republican lawmakers and restaurant and lodging advocacy groups have called for the state Legislature to intervene.
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy has also been a strong opponent of the changes, posting videos on X and sharing blogs about the issue.
“New paid leave and minimum wage law in Michigan could allow workers to skip work for three consecutive days without calling in—no questions asked. This provision, along with other measures in the legislation, threatens to devastate small businesses and hurt workers. Lawmakers must act quickly to address these issues before it’s too late,” the MCPP shared on X on Tuesday.
The coming policies were spurred by the Michigan Supreme Court’s July 31 decision to uphold the voter-initiated ballot proposals related to minimum wage and earned sick time reforms.
Under the looming changes, Michigan’s tipped wage, which increased from $3.93 to $4.01 an hour on Jan. 1, would be gradually phased out. It will increase to $5.99 on Feb. 21, with scheduled hikes to 100% of the regular minimum wage by 2030.
The minimum wage will increase from $10.56 an hour to $12.48 an hour on Feb. 21, gradually increasing to $14.97 by Feb. 21, 2028, and then annually adjusted by the rate of inflation.
In addition, the paid sick leave rules affect businesses of all sizes, requiring all businesses to offer 72 hours (nine days) of paid sick leave each year. For businesses with fewer than 10 employees, only 40 of those hours must be paid. There are exemptions for government units, but not small businesses, nonprofits, part-time, seasonal, temporary or emergency workers, according to the Mackinac Center’s article, titled “The Jobless Bills.”
John Sellek, spokesman for the Save MI Tips campaign, another group advocating for keeping the tipped wage in place, told The Detroit News that Whitmer’s leadership is needed in this process.
“Since 2022 she’s said this situation is not sustainable for the industry and she is open to supporting a legislative agreement,” Sellek said. “We are counting on her.”
A Michigan delegation will attend the International Defence Exhibition and Conference in Abu Dhabi, where Whitmer will participate in a women’s roundtable to discuss the status of women’s leadership in the U.S. and Middle East, according to the governor’s office.
The governor’s office didn’t mention how long Whitmer would be away from the state of Michigan and didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment about the trip, The Detroit News reports.