WorkforceIn a win for restaurants, the state Court of Appeals essentially ensured that the status quo will persist after Feb. 19.
Restaurants in Michigan have been spared a jump in the state’s minimum wage and a big cut in the tip credit as the result of a decision handed down late last week by the state Court of Appeals.
The unanimous ruling by the court’s three-judge panel freezes the minimum wage for non-tipped hourly workers at $10.10 an hour. Employers can pay tipped employees as little as $3.81 an hour if gratuities bring the workers’ income up to the state’s hourly minimum.
Had at least two of the judges agreed with the plaintiffs, the minimum wage would have jumped on Feb. 20 to $13.03 and the minimum due tipped employees would have risen to $11.73. The difference between the minimum wage for tipped employees and all workers would have disappeared in 2024.
The plaintiffs included such labor groups as One Fair Wage, the union-supported advocate for killing the tip credit nationwide, and Restaurant Opportunities Centers, or ROC, its major benefactor. ROC receives funds from the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU.
Thursday’s decision was the latest in a string of developments that turned Michigan into a battleground on the tip credit. Back in 2018, voters approved a state initiative to raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour and phase out the tip credit.
Immediately afterward, the state legislature adopted the initiative as legislation, then amended the law...
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