Now [they] can't have the minions not paying taxes on their tips…

With minimum wage boost pending, tipped workers rally against changes

LANSING — On the same day the Michigan Supreme Court issued a follow-up order clarifying its noteworthy ruling that will boost the state's minimum wage next year, hundreds of servers and bartenders took to Lansing Wednesday to call on lawmakers to preserve the current tipped minimum wage scale, arguing that pending changes will dramatically hurt their earnings.

In the clarifying order issued Wednesday afternoon, which follows up on a seismic July ruling to increase minimum wage in Michigan next year, justices wrote their initial ruling correctly established a timeframe for raising the minimum wage but pushed back the year the so-called tip credit will be eliminated to 2030, one year later than it had initially ordered.

Michigan's minimum wage is still slated to increase to $10 plus an inflation adjustment on Feb. 21, 2025. The tipped minimum wage will be 48% of the standard minimum wage, beginning that date.

The initial ruling was also at the forefront of a rally at the state Capitol Wednesday afternoon, where tipped workers said they never asked for a standard minimum wage. Rallygoers argued they take home substantially more pay through tips earned waiting tables or working shifts behind the bar.

"We haven't asked for this, we don't want this. If this does change, me going from $40-$50 an hour right now off tips down to $15-$20 an hour, a standard wage, I'm not going to be able to support myself," said Angelo Hawkins, a 21-year-old business student at Michigan State University who works at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Lansing.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2024/09/18/hundreds-of-tipped-workers-rally-at-michigan-capitol-over-wage-ruling/75278255007/