What House Bill's 4001/4002 actually are, Why They are Necessary and How to Contact Your Senator
First we will provide you with information on how to contact your senators. However, if you need more information before doing so, please see below that there are two summaries. One is a short summary and the other is an extended summary.
Call to find your Senator to leave them a polite message: 517-373-2400
Find Your Senator Using Your Own Address
List of Senators' Phone Numbers in Alphabetical Order
Or, contact Senate Majority Leader, Winnie Brinks (D) directly at 517-272-1801 or at [email protected] and ask her to please take up HB 4001 and 4002!
Brief Summary/History Of HB 4001 and HB 4002
2018: The Republican Legislature [of 2018] Approved a Ballot Initiative and adopted it before it appeared on the Ballot in order to fix its ambiguous language.
2019: Governor Snyder Signed the new Law before he left office at the end of 2018.
2022: The original authors of the Proposal, along with employee groups, sued the Legislature alleging their fix to it was unconstitutional.
2023: This decision was appealed.
2024: The Michigan Court of Appeals decision was appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court, handing down this latest decision in July 2024, raising the minimum wage again, claiming inflationary reasons, which will go into effect Feb. 21, 2025
2025: This now heads to the Senate to pass before February 21, 2025. Will the Democrat-Senate play politics and withhold dealing with it? Or will they save Michigan's Restaurant workers and Employers?
Extended Historical Summary
The Republican-led legislature in 2018 adopted a ballot proposal which intended to give employees paid-sick leave. They addressed the issue before it went on the ballot. Their intent in making changes to it was to make it more accommodating to businesses than its original ambiguous language. Ambiguous language is unhelpful for any proposal, especially when a new law has increased expenses for businesses. [i.e. The taxpayers weren’t paying for this, but rather it was a new, large regulation on Michigan’s businesses.] Due to the ambiguous language, they were also they were trying to prevent the proposal from driving Democrat outcomes across the state.
*Governor Snyder signed the amended proposal before he left office and the Michigan Paid Medical Leave Act went in to effect.
After it went in to effect, employee groups and people who sponsored the original ballot proposal sued the Legislature. They alleged that what the Legislature had done was unconstitutional, suing in the Michigan Court of Claims. The Court of Claims [also known as the "lottery court," which is a single judge's decision] found that it was unconstitutional.
Another appeal followed, which went to a 3-member panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals. ***The Michigan Appeals Court found that the legislature had exercised it's plenary power to legislate constitutionally and they upheld the legislature's modification of 2018 proposal/law.
Next it was appealed again to the Michigan Supreme Court. It was known throughout the process that the Whitmer Administration wanted the ballot proposal to be enforced as originally constructed before the Legislature in 2018 amended it.
It spent a long time up at the Supreme Court. Eventually they ruled that the adopt-and-amended Proposal was currently unconstitutional but only because it was passed in the lame-duck of 2018 instead of in a new session of the legislature. In their decision, the Michigan Supreme Court also said the Paid-Sick Leave law and the Tip-Credit had to go into effect on Feb. 21, 2025 and further said to the executive branch, that the minimum wage had to go up according to "inflationary percentages."
So the Michigan Supreme Court ended up rewriting portions of the law themselves, unilaterally raising the minimum wage again to adjust for inflation. Keep in mind it had been 6 years since the original ballot proposal had been amended by the Legislature and a new minimum wage settled on at that time, which was then under a Trump economy. Given the current economy, the MSC's new demand for an inflationary raise in their decision, it is not a sustainable situation economically and will destroy the business community in Michigan. The Michigan Chamber of Commerce is pushing for this fix and has been for months.
What this means: Michigan's employers and businesses, especially smaller businesses, cannot afford these changes of the original ballot proposal passed. As a single mom testified before the House Hearing Committee last week, "I am a single mom who works 30 hours a week to support my family. I am used to making $90 an hour. Because of this new law, I made only $15 an hour last weekend. It's a joke."
The House of Representatives, as of 3/23,2025 passed HB 4001 and HB 4002 which will permanently fix the problem. *It now goes to the senate during the week of January 27, 2025. Please call your senators and tell them to pass it! If they don't, thousands of Michigan's business will go out of business and thousands of Michigan's workers will become unemployed.
Senate Contact Information
Call to find your Senator to leave them a polite message: 517-373-2400
Find Your Senator Using Your Own Address
List of Senators' Phone Numbers in Alphabetical Order
*Paid for by the Ottawa County Republican Committee--PO Box 514, Hudsonville, MI 49426