As the February 21 deadline for the new Earned Sick Time Act (ETSA) to go into effect, the Legislature continues to work on improving the legislation so that it is friendlier to the business community in Michigan to administer. Earlier this year, the House of Representatives passed HB 4001 and HB 4002 addressing these two issues and just this week, the Senate made efforts to keep the conversation and negotiations alive.
The Michigan Senate passed their version of the minimum wage for tipped employees legislation and tie-barred it to the house’s ETSA legislation. A tie-bar to a bill means that both bills need to be passed for either of them to go into effect, realistically meaning that there is a strong chance that changes to both laws will occur one way or another. All this in a move to keep the negotiations going. MITA anticipates that movement on both issues will occur next week before the deadline hits and we will continue to update the membership on what the new changes are and how they may impact your companies. For those MITA members under a collective bargaining agreement, the House version of the ESTA does not address the issue, meaning that it is likely that it will not impact those agreements until they are renegotiated. The Senate could still put language in there that forces compliance regardless of how a CBA addresses time off, and we will continue to advocate and monitor the situation.
In 2018 a citizens initiative collected enough signatures to amend the state’s sick leave act and the minimum wage act. The Legislature, at that time, adopted and amended the initiative within the same legislative session. In July of 2024 Michigan’s Supreme Court rules that to be unconstitutional and put an effective date of February 21, 2025 for the act.
A large coalition of business organizations, including MITA have been working with lawmakers in an attempt to make the act more reasonable to employers. Legislation that MITA supports has passed the House and is being negotiated in the Senate. Attached is a document that breaks down the differences between the House compromise version and the Senate introduced version. The state has set up a really good frequently asked questions section on what the law affects and what employers would be required to do if the legislature does not act and nothing changes. That can be found here FAQs.
With February 21st right around the corner, we suggest MITA members begin to make preparations to comply with the law as written but keep a close eye on updates from us on the progress of our legislative solution.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Rob Coppersmith, Executive Vice President, at robcoppersmith@thinkmita.org or Lance Binoniemi,
Vice President of Government Affairs, at lancebinoniemi@thinkmita.org.
