Campaign wants statewide vote on Michigan minimum wage for tipped workers

Craig Mauger, The Detroit News on Jun 12, 2025

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LANSING, Michigan — A group in Michigan said it plans to gather petition signatures in the coming months to seek a statewide referendum on a law that scaled back increases in the minimum wage for workers who receive tips.

On Wednesday, the Bureau of Elections announced it will begin seeking public comment on summary language that will eventually appear on the petition sheets of the committee named Voters to Stop Pay Cuts. The group will need 223,099 valid signatures to put the law that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed on the ballot in November 2026.

"We’re mobilizing to ensure voters — not politicians — have the ultimate say in whether these protections are upheld," said Saru Jayaraman, president of the organization One Fair Wage.

The law targeted by the new campaign was the result of a compromise between Republicans and Democrats in the state Legislature after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled GOP lawmakers had unconstitutionally blocked two ballot proposals from taking effect in 2018.

The court decision meant that the proposals would become Michigan law on Feb. 21. Under one of the proposals, Michigan's lower minimum wage for tipped workers would have gradually moved to 100% of the standard minimum wage. The tipped wage was $4.01 earlier this year. It would have shifted to about $15 an hour in 2030, under the court-ordered policy.

Michigan's restaurant industry contended the significant increases in the tipped wage would have led to job losses and business closures. But the Legislature intervened, speeding up increases in the standard minimum wage but only gradually bumping up the tipped wage to 50% of the standard minimum wage in 2031.

If the referendum campaign is successful, the court-ordered policy would be put back in place.

Justin Winslow, president and CEO of the Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association, urged voters not to sign the petitions.

"After six years of legal uncertainty, our industry finally has clarity and a responsible path forward," Winslow said in a Wednesday statement. "Michigan's restaurant workers and operators deserve certainty, not the chaos that would result from suspending thoughtful, bipartisan legislation."

If Voters to Stop Pay Cuts gathers enough petition signatures and officially secures the referendum, the law, as it currently stands, is temporarily suspended until the statewide vote occurs.

A website, set up by One Fair Wage, encouraged people this week to "join us in collecting signatures to reinstate our raise."

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