Lansing — With less than an hour before a midnight deadline, the Michigan Legislature approved Thursday night a bill to grant businesses an array of changes to looming requirements that they broadly provide employees paid sick time.
The votes came as state lawmakers were rushing to send Gov. Gretchen Whitmer a bill scaling back some provisions of the sick time benefit requirements after advancing legislation to the governor's desk earlier in the evening that cancels a large increase in the hourly minimum wage for workers who receive tips that was set to go into effect Friday.
The changes represented a compromise between the Democratic-led Senate and the Republican-controlled House. GOP leaders touted that the bills would keep the lower tipped wage in place for restaurant workers, while Democratic leaders emphasized that all businesses would be required to offer some paid sick time, with many having to allow workers to collect up to 72 hours, or nine days, of annual paid time off.
"There is not a single state in the union that has a paid sick time of 72 hours for businesses over 10 (employees)," said Senate Floor Leader Sam Singh, D-East Lansing. "The closet is at 56 hours. So that is a fundamental part that was kept here."
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