Michigan 2025 2025-2026 Regular Session

Michigan Senate Bill SB0008 Comm Sub / Analysis

Filed 02/26/2025

                    Act No. 1 
Public Acts of 2025 
Approved by the Governor 
February 21, 2025 
Filed with the Secretary of State 
February 21, 2025 
EFFECTIVE DATE: February 21, 2025 
 
 
 
 
 
STATE OF MICHIGAN 
103RD LEGISLATURE 
REGULAR SESSION OF 2025 
Introduced by Senator Hertel 
 
ENROLLED SENATE BILL No. 8 
AN ACT to amend 2018 PA 337, entitled “An initiation of legislation to enact the Improved Workforce 
Opportunity Wage Act which would fix minimum wages for employees within this state; prohibit wage 
discrimination; provide for a wage deviation board; provide for the administration and enforcement of the act; 
prescribe penalties for the violation of the act; and supersede certain acts and parts of acts including 2014 PA 138,” 
by amending sections 2, 4, 4d, 9, and 10 (MCL 408.932, 408.934, 408.934d, 408.939, and 408.940). 
 
The People of the State of Michigan enact: 
 
Sec. 2. As used in this act: 
(a) “Commissioner” or “director” means the director of the department of labor and economic opportunity. 
(b) “Employ” means to engage, suffer, or permit to work. 
(c) “Employee” means an individual not less than 16 years of age employed by an employer on the premises of 
the employer or at a fixed site designated by the employer, and includes a minor employed subject to section 15(1) 
of the youth employment standards act, 1978 PA 90, MCL 409.115. 
(d) “Employer” means a person, firm, or corporation, including this state and political subdivisions, agencies, 
and instrumentalities of this state, and a person acting in the interest of the employer, that employs 2 or more 
employees at any 1 time within a calendar year. An employer is subject to this act during the remainder of that 
calendar year. Except as specifically provided in the franchise agreement, as between a franchisee and franchisor, 
the franchisee is considered the sole employer of workers for whom the franchisee provides a benefit plan or pays 
wages. 
 
Sec. 4. (1) Subject to the exceptions specified in this act, the minimum hourly wage rate is: 
(a) Beginning February 21, 2025, $12.48. 
(b) Beginning January 1, 2026, $13.73. 
(c) Beginning January 1, 2027, $15.00. 
(2) Every October beginning in October, 2027, the state treasurer shall calculate an adjusted minimum wage 
rate. The adjustment must increase the minimum wage by the rate of inflation. The state treasurer shall calculate 
the increase by multiplying the otherwise applicable minimum wage by the 12-month percentage increase, if any, 
in the Consumer Price Index for the midwest region, CPI-U, or a successor index, as published by the Bureau of 
Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor, based on the most recent 12-month period for which 
data are available. The state treasurer shall publish the adjusted minimum wage rate by November 1 of the year 
in which it is calculated. The adjusted minimum wage rate is effective beginning January 1 of the immediately 
succeeding year. 
 
 
(1)  (3) An increase in the minimum hourly wage rate as prescribed in subsection (2) does not take effect if the 
unemployment rate, as determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor, 
for this state is 8.5% or greater for the year immediately preceding the year of the prescribed increase. 
 
Sec. 4d. (1) The minimum hourly wage rate of an employee must be established as provided for under 
subsection (2) if all of the following conditions are met: 
(a) The employee receives gratuities in the course of the employee’s employment. 
(b) The gratuities described in subdivision (a) equal or exceed the difference between the minimum hourly 
wage rate established under subsection (2) and the minimum hourly wage established under section 4. 
(c) The gratuities are proven gratuities as indicated by the employee’s declaration for purposes of the federal 
insurance contribution act, 26 USC 3101 to 3128. 
(d) Except as otherwise provided in this subdivision, the entirety of the gratuities are retained by the employee 
who receives them. This subdivision does not prohibit an employee from voluntarily sharing the employee’s 
gratuities with another employee if the other employee is directly or indirectly part of the chain of service and the 
other employee’s duties are not primarily managerial or supervisory. 
(e) The employee’s employer informed the employee of the provisions of this section, in writing, at or before 
the time of hire, and the employee gave written consent. 
(2) The minimum hourly wage rate of an employee described in subsection (1) is as follows: 
(a) Beginning February 21, 2025, 38% of the minimum hourly wage rate established under section 4. 
(b) Beginning January 1, 2026, 40% of the minimum hourly wage rate established under section 4. 
(c) Beginning January 1, 2027, 42% of the minimum hourly wage rate established under section 4. 
(d) Beginning January 1, 2028, 44% of the minimum hourly wage rate established under section 4. 
(e) Beginning January 1, 2029, 46% of the minimum hourly wage rate established under section 4. 
(f) Beginning January 1, 2030, 48% of the minimum hourly wage rate established under section 4. 
(g) Beginning January 1, 2031, 50% of the minimum hourly wage rate established under section 4. 
(3) As used in this section, “gratuities” means tips or voluntary monetary contributions received by an 
employee from a guest, patron, or customer for services rendered to that guest, patron, or customer and that the 
employee reports to the employer for purposes of the federal insurance contributions act, 26 USC 3101 to 3128. 
(4) Except as otherwise provided under subsection (1)(d), gratuities remain the property of the employee who 
receives them, regardless of whether the employee’s employer pays the employee the minimum hourly wage rate 
established under subsection (2) or the minimum hourly wage rate established under section 4. Gratuities and 
service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and do not count toward, wages due the employee. 
(5) Employers shall provide employees and consumers written notice of the employer’s plan to distribute 
service charges. 
(6) An employer shall keep records that show compliance with this section for not less than 3 years after the 
date of an employee’s last pay period. 
 
Sec. 9. (1) If an employer violates this act, the employee affected by the violation, at any time within 3 years, 
may do any of the following: 
(a) Bring a civil action for the recovery of the difference between the amount paid and the amount that, but 
for the violation, would have been paid the employee under this act and an equal additional amount as liquidated 
damages together with costs and reasonable attorney fees as are allowed by the court. 
(b) File a claim with the director who shall investigate the claim. 
(2) If the director determines there is reasonable cause to believe that the employer has violated this act and 
the director is subsequently unable to obtain voluntary compliance by the employer within a reasonable period of 
time, the director shall bring a civil action under subsection (1)(a). The director may investigate and file a civil 
action under subsection (1)(a) on behalf of all employees of that employer who are similarly situated at the same 
work site and who have not brought a civil action under subsection (1)(a). A contract or agreement between the 
employer and the employee or any acceptance of a lesser wage by the employee is not a bar to the action. 
(3) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (4), in addition to bearing liability for civil remedies described 
in this section, an employer who fails to pay the minimum hourly wage in violation of this act, or that violates a 
provision of section 4a governing an employee’s compensatory time, is subject to a civil fine of not more than 
$1,000.00. 
(4) An employer that fails to pay the minimum hourly wage to an employee as described in section 4d(1) is 
subject to a civil fine of not more than $2,500.00. 
 
Sec. 10. (1) This act does not apply to an employer that is subject to the minimum wage provisions of the fair 
labor standards act of 1938, 29 USC 201 to 219, unless the application of those federal minimum wage provisions 
 
 
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Secretary of the Senate 
to the employer would result in a lower minimum hourly wage than provided under this act. If an employer is 
subject to this act only by application of this subsection, this act does not apply to the employer’s employee who 
is exempt from the minimum wage requirements of the fair labor standards act of 1938, 29 USC 201 to 219. 
(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), an employee must be paid in accordance with the minimum wage and 
overtime compensation requirements of sections 4 and 4a if the employee meets either of the following conditions: 
(a) The employee is employed in domestic service employment to provide companionship services as that term 
is defined in 29 CFR 552.6 for individuals who, because of age or infirmity, are unable to care for themselves and 
is not a live-in domestic service employee as described in 29 CFR 552.102. 
(b) The employee is employed to provide childcare, but is not a live-in domestic service employee as described 
in 29 CFR 552.102. However, the requirements of sections 4 and 4a do not apply if the employee meets all the 
following conditions: 
(i) Is younger than the age of 18. 
(ii) Provides services on a casual basis as that term is defined in 29 CFR 552.5. 
(iii) Provides services that do not regularly exceed 20 hours per week, in the aggregate. 
(3) This act does not apply to individuals employed in summer camps for not more than 4 months or to 
employees who are covered under section 14 of the fair labor standards act of 1938, 29 USC 214. 
(4) This act does not apply to agricultural fruit growers, pickle growers and tomato growers, or other 
agricultural employers who traditionally contract for harvesting on a piecework basis, as to those employees used 
for harvesting, until the board has acquired sufficient data to determine an adequate basis to establish a scale of 
piecework and determines a scale equivalent to the prevailing minimum wage for that employment. The piece 
rate scale must be equivalent to the minimum hourly wage in that, if the payment by unit of production is applied 
to a worker of average ability and diligence in harvesting a particular commodity, the worker receives an amount 
not less than the hourly minimum wage. 
(5) Notwithstanding any other provision of this act, subsection (1)(a) and (b) and subsection (2) do not deprive 
an employee or any class of employees of any right that existed on September 30, 2006 to receive overtime 
compensation or to be paid the minimum wage. 
 
Enacting section 1. This amendatory act does not take effect unless House Bill No. 4002 of the 103rd Legislature 
is enacted into law. 
 
This act is ordered to take immediate effect. 
 
Clerk of the House of Representatives 
 
 
 
 
Approved  
 
 
 
 
 
 
Governor 
 
 
Compiler's note: House Bill No. 4002, referred to in enacting section 1, was filed with the Secretary of State 
February 21, 2025, and became 2025 PA 2, Imd. Eff. Feb. 21, 2025. 
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