Contact:

Sarah Coffey

sarah@onefairwage.org

Michigan

Since the pandemic, restaurant workers have been leaving the industry in droves. Our research reveals that 53 percent of restaurant workers surveyed are considering leaving the industry, 70 percent of whom are citing low wages and tips as their primary reason for leaving, and 78 percent of workers state that the only reason they would stay in the industry is if they received a livable wage with tips on top. In response to this staffing crisis, thousands of restaurants nationwide have raised their wages to get workers to attract and retain staff, but this measure is not enough. Through state campaigns, we are focusing on raising wages for tipped workers so that the 1 million restaurant workers who have left since the onset of the pandemic can return to an industry that fairly compensates essential workers.

In 2018, One Fair Wage gained popular support and was on the Michigan ballot. The Michigan legislature passed our ballot measure as law, raising wages for all workers including tipped workers, in order to remove it from the ballot and thus keep working people from going to the polls to 'vote themselves a raise.' But the anti-worker legislature moved to weaken the legislation and overturn the passage of One Fair Wage. In response, we intensified voter turnout activities to demonstrate that the people of Michigan did not want their minimum wage measure to be altered. As a result, the 2018 election witnessed a significant increase in voter turnout. Since the onset of the pandemic, however, many workers have left the restaurant industry due to low wages, making it clear that they will not return without raises. We have refiled the ballot measure for One Fair Wage under the ballot campaign committee name Raise the Wage and we can win a full minimum wage with tips with continued popular support in Michigan.

In Michigan, state courts just reversed a legislative attempt to undermine a ballot measure we led in 2018 to raise the wage to $12 an hour for all workers, including tipped workers who currently receive just over $3 an hour. The Michigan Court of Claims declared our initiative’s proposal to be the law of the land, making Michigan the eighth state to require a full wage with tips on top. We’ve mobilized workers to vote in the November 2022 election to make sure their raise to $12 gets enforced, and we just submitted 610,000 signatures to put $15 an hour on the ballot in 2024. Contact us to get involved!