Michigan $15 Minimum Wage Initiative (2024)

Michigan $15 Minimum Wage Initiative
Election date November 5, 2024
Topic Minimum wage
Status Not on the ballot
Type State statute	Origin Citizens

The Michigan $15 Minimum Wage Initiative was not on the ballot in Michigan as an indirect initiated state statute on November 5, 2024.

The ballot measure would have increased the state minimum wage to $15 in 2027.

The proposed ballot measure is an indirect initiated state statute. In Michigan, citizen-initiated statutes that receive enough valid signatures are sent to the Legislature, which then has 40 days to pass the initiative into law. The governor cannot veto indirect initiatives that legislators approve. If the legislature does not approve the initiative, then it appears on the next general election ballot.

Measure design

The initiative was designed to increase the minimum wage in Michigan incrementally. Under this measure, the minimum wage would increase to the following rates by the following dates:

• $11.00 per hour by January 1, 2023;
• $12.00 per hour by January 1, 2024;
• $13.00 per hour by January 1, 2025;
• $14.00 per hour by January 1, 2026; and
• $15.00 per hour by January 1, 2027.

Under this measure, starting in 2027, the state treasurer would have calculated an adjusted minimum wage rate every October. The minimum wage increase would have been based on the rate of inflation for urban wage-earners.

Under this measure, the unemployment rate would no longer apply to whether or not the minimum wage is increased. As of 2022, a minimum wage increase could not take effect if the unemployment rate was or exceeded 8.5%.

The measure also would have incrementally adjusted the minimum employer-paid portion of pay for tipped workers, over a period of six years, until it matched the minimum wage for all employees. The measure would have provided that tipped workers would keep tips they have earned, unless they agreed to share them with non-manager employees.

The initiative would have removed state authority to approve a lower minimum wage to minors and disabled workers.

Text of measure

Full text

The full text of the ballot initiative is below:

Support

Raise the Wage (One Fair Wage) led the campaign in support of the ballot initiative.

Supporters

Organizations

• Fems for Dems

Arguments

• Maricela Gutierrez, co-chair of the Raise the Wage: "Another reason why this ballot measure is super historic is because it eliminates the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers. This has a direct legacy in slavery and was created during emancipation, when restaurant owners decided they didn’t want to pay Black people for their labor and wanted them to live exclusively off tips."
• Chantel Watkins, lead organizer of One Fair Wage Michigan: "At least 55,000 workers have left the Michigan restaurant industry - that’s 1 in 8 workers statewide - and nearly 80% are saying the only thing that would make them come back is a full minimum wage with tips on top. We can’t wait for the legal process any longer. Workers are no longer willing to work for subminimum wages, and hundreds of employers have raised wages to recruit staff. Workers need a living wage and employers need it too, to get workers back in restaurants."

Opposition

Michigan Opportunity is leading the campaign in opposition to the ballot initiative.

Arguments

Ballotpedia did not locate arguments in opposition to the ballot measure.

Background

One Fair Wage lawsuit

See also: Michigan Supreme Court, Mothering Justice et al. v. Michigan, July 31, 2024

On July 31, 2024, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that legislators adopting a citizen-initiated statute, and then amending the initiative during the same legislative session, violated the Michigan Constitution. The decision was along partisan lines, with the court's four Democrats ruling against adopt-and-amend. The court's three Republicans dissented.

Justice Elizabeth Welch (D) wrote the court's opinion, which said, "[W]e hold that Article 2, § 9 provides the Legislature with three—and only three—options upon receiving a valid initiative petition. Any legislative response to a valid initiative petition that falls outside those three discrete options is unconstitutional and impermissibly infringes upon the people’s reserved power." The three options are: (1) enact the law “without change or amendment” within 40 days; (2) “reject the proposed law, in which case the proposed law will appear on the ballot;” or (3) propose a competing measure to appear on the ballot alongside the initiative.

Justice Elizabeth Clement (R), in her dissent, wrote, "There is certainly reason to be frustrated by the Legislature’s actions here... But nothing in Article 2, § 9 restricts the Legislature from doing so. And as tempting as it might be to step into the breach, this Court lacks the power to create restrictions out of whole cloth."

In 2018, two indirect initiated state statutes — one to increase the minimum wage, and the other to require paid sick leave — received enough signatures to appear on the ballot in Michigan. These proposed ballot measures were indirect initiated state statutes. In Michigan, citizen-initiated statutes that receive enough valid signatures are sent to the Legislature, which then has 40 days to pass the initiative into law. Otherwise, the initiative appears on the next general election ballot.

On September 5, 2018, the House and Senate voted to pass the indirect initiatives, enacting them into law. On December 4, 2018, the Legislature voted to amend the enacted initiatives, and Gov. Rick Snyder (R) signed the bills on December 13.

Michigan One Fair Wage and Michigan Time to Care — the campaigns behind the two initiatives — sued the state of Michigan. Plaintiffs described the legislative amendments as an adopt-and-amend tactic that violated Section 9 of Article 2 of the Michigan Constitution. Defendants argued that nothing prohibited the Legislature from amending enacted indirect initiatives.

On July 19, 2022, Court of Claims Judge Douglas Shapiro ruled against the state, holding that the legislature's amendments to the enacted initiatives were unconstitutional. Judge Shapiro wrote, "Both the letter and spirit of Article 2, § 9 support the conclusion that the Legislature has only three options to address voter-initiated legislation within the same legislative session—adopt it, reject it, or propose an alternative. Once the Legislature adopted the Earned Sick Time Act and the Improved Workforce Opportunity Act, it could not amend the laws within the same legislative session. To hold otherwise would effectively thwart the power of the People to initiate laws and then vote on those same laws—a power expressly reserved to the people in the Michigan Constitution." Judge Shapiro stayed the court's order until February 19, 2023.

On January 26, 2023, a three-judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals reversed the lower court's ruling, upholding the legislative action as constitutional. Judge Christopher Murray said, "The constitutional convention record squarely supports the conclusion that there was no intention to place a temporal limit on when the Legislature could amend initiated laws enacted by the Legislature." Attorney General Dana Nessel (D), as well as the campaigns behind two affected initiatives, appealed the ruling to the Michigan Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case on June 21, 2023. On December 7, 2023, the Michigan Supreme Court heard arguments regarding the adopt-and-amend legislative action.

On July 31, 2024, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that adopt-and-amend was unconstitutional. As the legislature's actions were ruled unconstitutional, the court ordered that the ballot initiatives go into effect on Feb. 21, 2025, with amended timelines for implementation. On February 21, 2025, House Bill 4002, which amended the expanded paid sick leave requirement, and Senate Bill 8, which adjusted the state's minimum and tipped wages, were signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

2018 minimum wage increase initiative

See also: Michigan Minimum Wage Increase Initiative (2018)

In 2017, the One Fair Wage Michigan campaign filed an initiative with the secretary of state's office. The initiative was designed to increase the state's minimum wage between 60 and 75 cents each year, until reaching $12.00 per hour in 2022. The campaign filed an estimated 370,690 signatures on May 21, 2018. On August 24, 2018, the Michigan Board of Canvassers voted to validate the signatures for the initiative.

In Michigan, citizen-initiated state statutes are indirect, meaning that after the submitted signatures are validated, the measure first goes to the state legislature rather than directly onto the ballot. If the state legislature approves of the measure, it becomes law without needing the signature of the governor. If the state legislature does not approve the measure, it goes on the ballot for voters to approve.

The Michigan State Legislature received the measure from the secretary of state’s office on August 27, 2018. Both chambers of the state legislature passed the initiative on September 5, 2018. In Michigan, for the state legislature to amend an initiative that passed the legislature, a simple majority would be needed (if the initiative went on the ballot and was approved by voters, it would require a three-fourths majority to amend it). In the state Senate, the vote was 24 to 13. At least 19 affirmative votes were needed to pass the measure. All 10 Senate Democrats, along with three Republicans, voted against adopting the initiative. The remaining 24 Republicans voted to pass the initiative. The state House voted 78 to 28 to adopt the initiative. At least 44 affirmative votes were needed. Supporters of adopting the initiative included 57 Republicans (90.5 percent) and 21 Democrats (45.7 percent).

On November 8, 2018, Sen. Dave Hildenbrand (R-29) introduced Senate Bill 1171 (SB 1171), which was designed to amend the indirect initiative. The final version of the bill proposed increasing the minimum wage to $12.05 by 2030. Both chambers of the Michigan state legislature passed the bill on December 4, 2018, and Gov. Rick Snyder (R) signed the bill on December 13, 2018.

Path to the ballot

Process in Michigan

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Michigan

In Michigan, the number of signatures required to qualify an initiated state statute for the ballot is equal to 8 percent of votes cast for governor in the last gubernatorial election. Signatures older than 180 days are invalid, which means all signatures must be collected within a 180-day window. Petitions for initiated statutes must be filed 160 days prior to the election. Successful initiative petitions are sent to the legislature, which then has 40 days to pass the proposed law. If the legislature does not approve the initiative, it goes on the ballot. If the legislature approves the initiative, it becomes law without needing the signature of the governor.

The requirements to get an initiated state statute certified for the 2024 ballot:

• Signatures: 356,958 valid signatures were required.
• Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures was May 29, 2024.

Signature petitions are filed with the secretary of state and verified by the board of state canvassers using a random sample method of verification.

Stages of this initiative

• The ballot initiative was filed with the Department of State on Dec. 22, 2021.
• On January 19, 2021, the ballot summary was approved by the Michigan Board of Canvassers.
• On March 21, 2022, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that a union logo on the petition did not need to comply with petition font-size requirements and did not invalidate petition sheets containing the logo.
• On March 24, 2022, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers approved the petition form for the initiative, clearing the initiative for signature gathering.
• On July 26, 2022, the One Fair Wage campaign announced that it submitted over 610,000 signatures to qualify for the 2024 ballot.
• The petition review and sampling process for the initiative began in January 2023.
• On October 20, 2023, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers deadlocked on its certification for the ballot, citing a change in petition language.

Lawsuit

---

This article contains a developing news story. Ballotpedia staff are checking for updates regularly. To inform us of new developments, email us at editor@ballotpedia.org.

---

Lawsuit overview
Issue: Should the Supreme Court approve the signatures after the Board of State Canvassers previously approved the form of the petition used to collect them?
Court: Michigan Supreme Court
Ruling: The appeal was denied. The petition language used to gain approval for the summary was not the same petition language submission to the Board of State Canvassers, so the Board was able to not approve the signatures
Plaintiff(s): One Fair Wage	Defendant(s): Michigan Board of State Canvassers

  Source: Michigan Courts

On October 30, 2023, One Fair Wage filed a lawsuit against the Michigan Board of State Canvassers after the Board of State Canvassers deadlocked on the certification and did not certify the measure. On May 31, the Michigan Supreme Court denied the appeal by One Fair Wage. Justice Brian Zahra wrote, "Given that plaintiff’s submission to the Board did not include the same petition language used to obtain preapproval of its summary, plaintiff failed to convince a majority of the Board to approve its petition. On this record, plaintiff has not met the high burden of showing a violation of a clear legal right as is required to obtain mandamus relief."

See also

2024 measures

• 2024 ballot measures
• Minimum wage on the ballot

Michigan

• Michigan ballot measures
• Michigan ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls