LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - Michigan could soon see a higher minimum wage and guaranteed paid sick leave. A lawsuit filed against Michigan’s Attorney General is asking a judge to restore two laws the legislature passed and amended in 2018.
The lawsuit claims the Attorney General has the power to over turn her predecessor’s opinion, allowing the legislature to pass a citizens initiative and then amend it during the same session.
“The person who has the ability to restore that, to fix that, to make it right, is the Attorney General,” said Aisha Wells, Paid Family Leave organizer for Mothering Justice.
Mothering Justice is one of several advocacy groups suing Attorney General Nessel with the goal of going back to the original wording of the proposals to raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour and guarantee workers paid sick leave.
“We are so adamant about these two laws being returned to the original version because they cut so many people out of them,” said Wells.
Organizers gathered enough petition signatures to put the proposals on the 2018 ballot. The Republican-controlled legislature instead voted to approve them, making them law and keeping them off the ballot.
During the lame-duck session following the election, the legislature watered those laws down so they no longer matched the intent of the people who signed the petitions. Then Attorney General Bill Schuette issued a legal opinion saying the adopt-and-amend policy is allowed under the state constitution.
That reversed a 1964 opinion from Attorney General Frank Kelly saying the legislature had to wait for a new session.
Mothering Justice wants Nessel to issue a new opinion or revoke Schuette’s, but that hasn’t happened.
The group’s paid family leave organizer Aisha Wells said if the original version was in place before the pandemic, more people could’ve benefited.
“If this was in place adequately, people would’ve been able to stay home longer to heal,” said Wells.
Restaurant Opportunities Center, another group suing Nessel, wants to see the original laws take effect; which was originally supposed to raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour by next year.
“We recognize it is a shift for restaurant owners and so we want to make that as easy and sustainable as possible,” said Sarah Coffey.
A spokeswoman for Attorney General Nessel told News 10 they don’t have a comment on this.
Michigan’s minimum wage right now is $9.65 an hour. The current law raises it to $12 an hour by 2030.
As for sick leave, the law says people get one hour for every 35 hours worked, but the requirement is only if the business has more than 50 workers.
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