Advocacy News – June 27, 2025
What’s happening: The Board of State Canvassers today also approved the 100-word petition summary submitted by a group seeking to upend the new minimum wage law passed in February — giving a green light to proponents to begin collecting the required 223,009 valid signatures to get the issue on the November 2026 ballot.
Why it matters: Supporters of the proposed referendum, including One Fair Wage and Voters to Stop Pay Cuts, are looking to reinstate the Michigan Supreme Court’s July 2024 opinion, which ordered into effect a 2018 ballot proposal to increase the state’s minimum wage and fully eliminate tipped minimum wage.
- Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Michigan Legislature passed Public Act 1 in February to deal with the fall out of the Supreme Court’s monumental decision. That law increases the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2027 and the tipped minimum wage from 38% of the full minimum wage to 50% by 2031.
- As has long been Michigan’s requirement, once an employee’s tipped wage and tips are added together, the business must make up the difference if the employee’s wage does not meet or exceed the full minimum wage.
- The so-called “Voters to Stop Pay Cuts” proposal would force businesses to pay the full minimum wage to all employees — with tips added on top. Given how Public Act 1 was structured, the ballot initiative would also slow Michigan’s path to a $15 minimum wage.
- The ballot proposal creates a new round of chaos for an already-vulnerable service industry and will force them to increase prices, lay off employees, automate jobs or make other drastic changes.
What happens next: If enough signatures are gathered by proponents of the referendum, Public Act 1 will be paused until the statewide vote — meaning the 2018 ballot initiative, which was never voted on by the people, would go into effect.
- The Michigan Chamber continues to monitor this issue closely. For questions, contact Wendy Block.