Skip to main content

Challenges Filed To Oppose Michigan's Minimum Wage and Paid Sick Leave Ballot Measures


Last Friday, two Michigan business groups filed challenges with the Secretary of State in an effort to oppose ballot measures that would raise the state's minimum wage rate and mandate paid sick leave.  At this point, irrespective of these challenges made to the ballot measures, voters in the state appear likely to be able to vote on the matters this November.  (However, the State Elections Bureau is currently conducting a review of the petitions and will present a recommendation later this month on the viability of either ballot measure making it before voters in November).


Minimum Wage Ballot Measure

A hospitality industry group, Michigan Opportunity, is opposing efforts by Michigan One Fair Wage committee to raise the state's minimum wage rate from $9.25/hour up to $12/hour by 2022.  Increased after 2022 would be tied to inflation.  Taking it one step further, this ballot initiative would phase out the tipped minimum wage rate by 2024.

One Fair Wage obtained over 370,000 signatures to get the minimum wage ballot measure before voters in November.  (The Board of State Canvassers in Michigan must certify at least 252,523 signatures for a measure to be placed on the ballot).


 Paid Sick Leave Ballot Measure

Small Business for a Better Michigan is the other business group which has joined the fray and is attempting to sideline the paid sick leave proposal.  The proposal, as currently written, would guarantee employees at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.

Time to Care, which supports the paid sick leave measure, obtained more than 380,000 signatures.  (As with the minimum wage ballot measure, the paid sick leave proposal requires at least 252,523 signatures to be placed on the November ballot).


As for the challenges alleged last week, let us take a closer look.  The basis for the opposition centers upon several claims:  The ballot measures sidestep the state's Constitution, improperly capitalized words, and contained fraudulent signatures (to actually get the measures on the ballot).  At this time, it is still far too early to tell if either challenge will keep one or both ballot measures off the November ballot.  This is one to keep a close eye on going forward.



For additional information:  https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/07/16/group-kill-ballot-proposal-minimum-wage-michigan/783726002/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum, it was noted that emplo
Post a Comment
Read more

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

A few years ago, I remember when the “Fight for $15” movement was taking off around the country.  Lo and behold, it appears that a $15/hour minimum wage is not the stopping point, which should be no surprise.  As the below article notes, New York is aggressively moving to ramp up hourly wage rates even higher.  While all the  below articles are worth a read, I called particular attention to that one. As always, below are a couple article that caught my eye this week. Disney World Workers Reject Latest Contract Offer Late last week, it was announced that workers at Disney World had rejected the most recent contract offer from the company, calling on their employer to do better.  As Brooks Barnes at The New York Times writes, the unions that represent about 32,000 workers at Disney World reported their members resoundingly rejected the 5 year contract offer which would have seen workers receive a 10% raise and retroactive increased back pay.  While Disney’s offer would have increased pa
Post a Comment
Read more

Utah Non-Compete Bill Falters in House

Last month, a non-compete bill sponsored by Representative Brian Greene (Republican from Pleasant Grove) & up for vote in the Utah House failed to make it through the Legislature.  The bill sought to ban enforcement of non-competes if they came after a worker was already employed, given no compensation (such as a bonus or promotion) for signing the non-compete, and laid off within six months.  However, by a 22 - 49 vote, the bill was resoundingly defeated after some business groups lobbied to kill the non-compete bill.  One group in particular, The Free Enterprise Utah coalition, argued that the Utah State Legislature should hold off on any changes to non compete laws in the state until a survey about non competes was done among Utah businesses.  Representative Greene had countered this claim and argued that a survey was not needed to show that the current non compete laws in the states allowed many businesses, including some small high tech companies in the state, to per
Post a Comment
Read more