Michi­gan House Democ­rats push­ing last-minute bills before los­ing tri­fec­ta

Repub­li­cans won a major­i­ty in the state House in last month’s elec­tions, but vic­tors from the Novem­ber elec­tion will not be sworn in until Jan. 8. In their final month in the major­i­ty in the state House, state Democ­rats are seek­ing to pass reforms to the state’s min­i­mum wage and sick leave laws fol­low­ing a state Supreme Court rul­ing ear­li­er this year.

The Michi­gan Supreme Court ruled in August that the state’s changes to the 2018 Wage Act and Earned Sick Time Act were uncon­sti­tu­tion­al and set Feb. 21, 2025, as the date when the increased min­i­mum wage and paid leave ini­tia­tives in the orig­i­nal leg­is­la­tion would go into effect. The act also phas­es out low­er min­i­mum wages for tipped work­ers.

Dur­ing the lame-duck ses­sion, law­mak­ers are hop­ing to pass bipar­ti­san bills to slow the imple­men­ta­tion of the court’s changes.

Leg­is­la­tion from Repub­li­can state Rep. Gra­ham Filler and Demo­c­ra­t­ic state Rep. Nate Shan­non would move the state’s min­i­mum wage to $12 per hour start­ing on Feb. 21, 2025, rather than $12.48 per hour, and pro­gres­sive­ly move it to $15 per hour by 2029 instead of the planned $14.97 per hour by 2028. The bill pack­age would also main­tain a min­i­mum wage for tipped work­ers, along with address­ing upcom­ing changes to paid sick leave.

“If we don’t act fast, these changes could dev­as­tate small busi­ness­es and the restau­rant indus­try, lead­ing to clo­sures and job loss­es across the state. I’ve been work­ing hard to find a com­mon-sense solu­tion that gives busi­ness­es room to adapt while still increas­ing wages for work­ers,” Filler said in a state­ment after intro­duc­ing the leg­is­la­tion last month.

The issues of min­i­mum wage and paid sick leave are the most press­ing, but they could lead to lengthy nego­ti­a­tions dur­ing the lame-duck ses­sion, which is sched­uled to end on Dec. 19.

On Tues­day, the state House Crim­i­nal Jus­tice Com­mit­tee pushed for­ward leg­is­la­tion to repeal sodomy laws that remain on the books in the state. The U.S. Supreme Court deci­sion in Lawrence v. Texas in 2003 blocked sodomy laws across the coun­try, but Democ­rats are push­ing to remove the “zom­bie” leg­is­la­tion from state law, accord­ing to the Detroit News.

“Despite repeat­ed attempts to do so, the Leg­is­la­ture has nev­er repealed Michigan’s so-called sodomy ban, per­mit­ting a zom­bie law that insults the con­sti­tu­tion­al rights of Michi­gan­ders to remain on the books,” Demo­c­ra­t­ic state Rep. Noah Arbit said on Tues­day, accord­ing to the out­let.

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The sodomy leg­is­la­tion passed through the com­mit­tee with eight Democ­rats vot­ing to push it for­ward and two Repub­li­cans vot­ing against push­ing it for­ward.

Repub­li­can state Rep. Bri­an Begole, who vot­ed against push­ing for­ward the leg­is­la­tion, said that he believed there are more press­ing issues to focus on and told the out­let that he did not “believe the major­i­ty of Michi­gan cit­i­zens feel this leg­is­la­tion is a pri­or­i­ty right now.”