The Select Committee to Protect Michigan Workers and Small Businesses was officially formed Thursday
State Rep. Ken Borton on Thursday was selected to serve on a select committee formed to address a Michigan Supreme Court decision from last summer that tipped workers and small businesses say will have a devastating effect on their livelihoods. Without legislative intervention, the changes will go into effect Feb. 21.
“In forming this committee, House Republicans are putting a line in the sand and proving now is the time to save our tipped-wage workers and small businesses. Not next month. Not next week. Now,” said Borton, R-Gaylord. “Stalling by legislative Democrats put us in this mess in the first place. We aren’t going to waste another second before we find a solution.”
The court decision puts unrealistic mandates on small businesses regarding wages and sick leave while phasing out the tip credit, which provides a key source of income for workers and in often cases is more than someone would make with an increased minimum wage – notably in the service industry.
The Select Committee to Protect Michigan Workers and Small Businesses was formed with the sole focus of addressing tipped-wage and earned sick time legislation. The committee is set to consider House Bills 4001 and 4002, introduced yesterday by Reps. John Roth, R-Interlochen, and Jay DeBoyer, R-Clay Township.
The bills will help bring solutions to the court decision from last summer while striking a needed balance between fostering economic growth, protecting livelihoods, and preventing mass closures.
Yesterday, state Senators also introduced their own legislation to address the tip credit and Earned Sick Time Act.
“The Senate introducing their own set of bills is hopefully a sign they’ll stop dragging their feet,” Borton said. “Protecting the livelihood of servers and small businesses owners should be a bipartisan issue, and it seems to be one now – I can only hope it stays that way.”
The House committee is set to hold its first meetings next week.
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“House Republicans aren’t playing by the normal rules anymore, and that makes partisan hacks like Dana Nessel shake in their boots,” said Borton, R-Gaylord. “Instead of encouraging her own colleagues to consider legislation to address our concerns, she would rather threaten us with criminal charges for standing up for tipped workers and small businesses. Nessel should realize that we aren’t scared of her or her desperate attempts to weaponize the attorney general’s office as a last-ditch effort to extinguish what’s been a dumpster fire of a legislative term. Let her charge us; I want to look her in the eye in court while she tries to argue how my sticking up for restaurant workers and small businesses is a dereliction of duty.”
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