Michigan Paid Sick Leave Initiative (2018)

Michigan Paid Sick Leave Initiative
Election date November 6, 2018
Topic Labor and unions
Status Approved by the legislature
Type State statute	Origin Citizens
List of Michigan measuresMichigan Proposal 1Michigan Proposal 2Michigan Proposal 3Submit

The Michigan Paid Sick Leave Initiative was an indirect initiated state statute in Michigan that the state legislature voted to approve on September 5, 2018. If the legislature had not approved the indirect initiative, the measure would have appeared on the ballot on November 6, 2018.

The measure was designed to require employers to provide employees with paid sick time. Under the initiative, employees of small businesses, defined as employers with fewer than 10 employees, were allowed to accrue and use 40 hours of paid sick time per year. Employees of businesses with 10 or more employees were allowed to accrue and use 72 hours of paid sick time per year.

On December 4, 2018, the state legislature amended the indirect initiative to require businesses with 50 or more employees to provide paid sick leave. Under the changes, employees with less than 50 employees would not need to provide paid sick leave. The bill also capped the requirement to provide paid sick leave at 40 hours per year instead of 72 hours per year, as the indirect initiative required for businesses with 10 or more employees. On December 13, 2018, Gov. Rick Snyder (R) signed the bill into law.

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.

Vote in the state legislature

The Michigan State Legislature received the ballot initiative 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, the governor's signature is not required to adopt a citizen-initiated measure.

Most legislative Republicans supported adopting the initiative. Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof (R-30) said Republicans would seek to amend the initiative at a future date. He said, “We’ll consider different options and a whole suite of things we think are more friendly to Michigan, to make sure that workers are indeed cared for, and that still provide for economic development moving forward.” Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich (D-27) said Republicans' adopt-and-amend approach was better called "approve and remove, or even more cynically on my part, undo and screw." He added, "There’s no question they plan on making dramatic changes, if not repealing it altogether. We have no idea what that’s going to be."

In the state House, just under half of Democrats voted to adopt the initiative. House Democratic Leader Sam Singh described his caucus' reasoning, saying, "What we’ll do between now and the election is make sure that they commit to not gutting this in lame duck. If they can’t commit to it, then it’s very clear for the voters that the only people who will protect the things that we got today are Democrats."

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).

Vote in the Michigan State Senate September 5, 2018
Requirement: Simple majority of members in each chamber
Number of yes votes required: 19  a
	Yes	No	Not voting
Total	24	13	0
Total percent	64.86%	35.14%	0.00%
Democrat	0	10	0
Republican	24	3	0

Vote in the Michigan House of Representatives September 5, 2018
Requirement: Simple majority of members in each chamber
Number of yes votes required: 44  a
	Yes	No	Not voting
Total	78	28	3
Total percent	71.56%	25.69%	2.75%
Democrat	21	22	3
Republican	57	6	0

Amendment in the state legislature

On November 8, 2018, Sen. Mike Shirkey (R-16) introduced Senate Bill 1175 (SB 1175), which was designed to amend the indirect initiative. The final version of the bill was designed to require businesses with 50 or more employees to provide paid sick leave. Businesses with less than 50 employees would not need to provide paid sick leave. The bill would also cap the requirement to provide paid sick leave at 40 hours per year instead of 72 hours per year, as the indirect initiative required for businesses with 10 or more employees.

The Michigan House of Representatives passed the bill in a 60-48 vote on December 4, 2018. The Michigan State Senate passed the bill in a 26-12 vote on December 4, 2018. Gov. Rick Snyder (R) signed the bill on December 13, 2018. Gov. Snyder said, "The two bills I signed today strike a good balance between the initial proposals and the original legislation as drafted. They address a number of difficulties for job providers while still ensuring paid medical leave benefits and increased minimum-wage incomes for many Michiganders."

Rep. Mary Whiteford (R-80), who voted to pass the bill, said, "The original proposal threatens people’s livelihoods and undermines the positive strides that we have made to improve Michigan’s economy. We must fix it now, before Michigan families and job providers begin to experience its negative effects." House Minority Leader Jim Ananich (D) said Republicans "had these bills in the works all summer long, and they didn’t have the courage to show the voters what they were planning on doing. There’s no need to rush unless you have a plan in place that is not necessarily in the best interest of the citizens of Michigan."

Litigation on approving then amending indirect initiatives in Michigan

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.

Text of measure

Petition title

The petition language used for circulation was as follows:

“

An initiation of legislation to provide workers with the right to earn sick time for personal or family health needs, as well as purposes related to domestic violence and sexual assault and school meetings needed as the result of a child’s disability, health issues or issues due to domestic violence and sexual assault; to specify the conditions for accruing and using earned sick time; to prohibit retaliation against an employee for requesting, exercising, or enforcing rights granted in this act; to prescribe powers and duties of certain state departments, agencies, and officers; to provide for promulgation of rules; and to provide remedies and sanctions.

”

Full text

The measure created a new statute. The full text of the measure is available here.

Sponsors

MI Time to Care led the campaign in support of the ballot initiative. The committee said the following about its ballot initiative:

“

Taking time off of work to ensure that we and our families are healthy should not require putting our jobs in jeopardy. But nearly 2 million Michiganders don’t have the right to earn paid time off and risk getting fired or losing income to pay their bills every time they need to see a doctor or stay home with a sick child. Paid sick time isn’t only good for workers and families; it’s good for the economy, and it boosts employment and income stability. Lansing politicians have ignored this basic need of Michigan families, but Michiganders don’t have to rely on politicians to do what’s right. The Time to Care Coalition is leading a ballot campaign to guarantee that all working people in Michigan have access to earned sick leave.

”

Campaign finance

See also: Campaign finance requirements for Michigan ballot measures

Total campaign contributions:
Support:	$1,892,443.75
Opposition:	$0.00

There was one ballot measure committee, MI Time to Care, registered in support of the measure. The committee raised $1.89 million and expended $1.64 million.

The Sixteen Thirty Fund provided the largest contribution of $1.33 million to MI Time to Care.

There were no committees registeted to oppose the ballot initiative.

Support

The contribution and expenditure totals for the committee in support of the initiative were as follows:

Committees in support of the Paid Sick Leave Initiative Supporting committees Cash contributions In-kind services Cash expenditures MI Time to Care $1,700,012.00 $192,431.75 $1,446,310.91 Total $1,700,012.00 $192,431.75 $1,446,310.91

Totals in support Total raised: $1,892,443.75 Total spent: $1,638,742.66

Donors

The following were the top six donors who contributed to the support committee:

Donor	Cash	In-kind	Total
Sixteen Thirty Fund	$1,200,000.00	$131,010.87	$1,331,010.87
The Fairness Project	$300,000.00	$11,922.88	$311,922.88
Raise Michigan	$35,000.00	$45,400.00	$80,400.00
Economic Justice Alliance of Michigan	$65,000.00	$0.00	$65,000.00
Michigan People's Campaign	$50,000.00	$0.00	$50,000.00
Mothering Justice	$50,000.00	$0.00	$50,000.00

Background

As of 2018, 10 states and Washington, D.C., had laws requiring private employers to provide paid sick leave to their employees. Connecticut was the first state to enact a paid sick leave requirement, with Gov. Dan Malloy (D) signing the bill into law in 2011. Voters in Massachusetts (2014), Arizona (2016), and Washington (2016) passed ballot initiatives to require paid sick leave. The following map illustrates which states require private employers to provide paid sick leave:

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Michigan

Process in Michigan

In Michigan, the number of signatures required to qualify an indirect 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 2018 ballot:

• Signatures: 252,523 valid signatures were required.
• Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures was May 30, 2018.

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

If the initiative petition receives enough valid signatures, then the state legislature has 40 days to adopt or reject the proposal. If the legislature rejects or ignores the initiative, then the measure is placed on the next general election ballot.

Paid Sick Leave Initiative

On July 27, 2017, the committee MI Time to Care formed to propose the initiative. The initiative was filed with the secretary of state's office on August 11, 2017. The state Board of State Canvassers approved the petition for circulation on August 17, 2017.

On May 29, 2018, MI Time to Care submitted 377,560 signatures for verification. At least 252,523 of the signatures (66.88 percent) needed to be valid for the initiative to make the ballot. A random sample of signatures estimated that 271,088 were valid. On July 27, the state Board of Canvassers voted 3-1 to approve the signatures for the initiative, allowing the measure to go before the Michigan State Legislature. The state legislature had 40 days to adopt the initiative. Since the initiative was adopted, it did not go on the ballot. If the legislature had rejected the initiative or had taken no action on the initiative, it would have appeared on the ballot for the election on November 6, 2018.

See also

Suggest a link

• 2018 ballot measures
• Michigan 2018 ballot measures
• Laws governing the initiative process in Michigan
• Labor and unions on the ballot

External links

• Text of the Initiative