Michigan Senate Guts Minimum Wage Hike, Paid Sick Leave Laws

[DonViejo]

Source: Talking Points Memo/The AP



By DAVID EGGERT

November 28, 2018 1:22 pm

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s Republican-led Legislature began voting Wednesday on bills that would substantially scale back citizen-initiated minimum wage and paid sick leave laws that a business lobby criticized as too expensive and burdensome, setting up expected court challenges if GOP Gov. Rick Snyder signs them before making way for a Democrat in January.

The state Senate voted 26-12 almost entirely along party lines to advance two bills to the state House, which could vote as early as next week.

One measure would delay increasing the minimum wage to $12 an hour to at least 2030, instead of 2022, and repeal provisions to tie future increases to inflation and bring a lower wage for tipped employees in line with the wage for other workers. The current minimum wage is $9.25.

Another bill would exempt employers with fewer than 50 employees from providing paid medical leave and limit the amount of required leave to 36 hours a year at larger employers, instead of up to 72 hours for many businesses as required under the existing law that is scheduled to go into effect in March. Democrats and other opponents said many large companies and public entities already offer paid sick time, so the changes would effectively gut the requirement and hurt people who work at smaller businesses.



Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/michigan-senate-vote-gut-minimum-wage-sick-leave-laws

[CatWoman]

1. Jesus

and Dems are "sore losermen"???

[watoos]

2. WTF, $12 hr by 2022, are you kidding me?

I am retired and get Social Security and I am getting a 2.8% benefit increase next year because the cost of living went up 2.8% last year.

If $12hr by 2022 is too much this country is in big trouble. The politicians who proposed this Bill should be ashamed, unbelievable.

[slumcamper]

14. Ummm, yeah.

And they're even trying to kick that empty can down the road to 2030!

This is not to minimize or disregard the comparatively horrific nature of pre-emancipation slavery, but THIS is the "new slavery." And GOP state-level operatives are managing the plantation for the owners.

At some point it becomes time for an uprising, and that point grows near. IMHO, we've passed the point and are long overdue.

[DownriverDem]

3. New Dem Governor

The repubs will keep control of the House and Senate in January too.

[catbyte]

8. But they lost their supermajority, so they'll have to work with Democrats to pass anything.

Plus, we'll have a Democratic Governor. This is the last gasp of a dying party. I think their majorities in the legislature will be swept away once we fix all the gerrymandering they did.

[catbyte]

11. One last thing, here's the breakdown of Democratic vs Republican voters in 2018:

A Nov. 7 Metro Times tally of unofficial Michigan Secretary of State and Wayne County Clerk's Office vote totals found State House Dem candidates received a total of 2,092,164 votes in the 2018 midterm. Republicans received 1,917,150 votes — an advantage of about 175,000 for Democratic candidates.

Still, Republicans will hold a 58-52 majority in the State House during the next term.

In the State Senate, our preliminary count found Democrats received 2,062,494 votes while Republicans received 1,945,209 — an advantage of about 117,300 for Dems. Still, the GOP will hold a 22-16 majority next term.

Finally, in U.S. House races, unofficial totals have Dems with a 2,051,330- 1,838,447 lead over Republicans. Despite a 212,000-vote advantage for Dems, each party will send seven representatives to Congress. About 99 percent of precincts have reported, so the totals could slightly change.

https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2018/11/07/once-again-michigan-dems-get-more-state-senate-and-house-votes-but-gop-keeps-power

The anti-gerrymandering prop that just passed will right these wrongs.

[INdemo]

4. almost entirely along Party Lines..Almost?

Wonder who the Republican Lite is that voted against the Working Class...

[Firestorm49]

5. Apparently the Michigan legislature hates the common working stiff as much as women, minorities,

immigrants and every other societal group who isn’t rich and wealthy. Yet, people vote for them.

[catbyte]

6. This bullshit is why we turned MI blue, and now with the anti-gerrymandering law in place,

I predict that Michigan will go the way of California as soon as 2020.

[rurallib]

13. Best wishes for that to happen

Hope you have a good fair election in 2020 to cement it in.

[AJT]

7. The voters just had a choice of who they wanted in office, they are getting what they voted for.

[theaocp]

15. No, we didn't.

Our state is gerrymandered to fuck, so we passed Prop 2 to change that. We're TRYING to get a choice of who we want in office.

[AJT]

18. I live in WI. We are so gerrymandered also. But the difference seems to be rural and urban split.

The GOP has used their arsenal of right-wing media to peddle so much fear and hate of "others" in rural areas that it seems nearly impossible to get passed it. We finally got rid of Walker but still have a Republican legislature. Even though 45s policies hurt rural areas they still overwhelmingly voted Republican.

[LanternWaste]

16. That does seem to be the trendy and simplistic bumper-sticker people rely on.

But as we all know, bumper-stickers allow no room for context, nuance, detail or evidence. Probably why they're so very popular.

[Mr.Bill]

9. Can't the Democratic Governor

veto this?

[muntrv]

12. Whitmer doesn't take office until January, I believe. Repuke Snyder is still Governor.

[Blue_Tires]

30. It's the lame duck session

[lancelyons]

10. Dems need to show this to Michigan voters to show them the GOP is against raising their wages

Dems need to show this to Michigan voters to show them the GOP is against raising their wages.

This messaging would be so clear.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

17. 2030 is a long time to wait for $12 minimum wage.

Maine's minimum wage is $10 right now, but we have a law that says it will go up to $11 in 2019 and up to $12 in 2020. Michigan folks have to wait 10 more years for that kind of wage? That's crazy.

[Fuzzpope]

19. Hey, Republican voters..

When you hear us criticize you for "voting against your own interests", this is exactly what we are talking about.

Idiots.

[Racerdog1]

20. Will of the people?

These issues were initiated by the voters. So now a few dumb shit GOPer's are circumventing the will of their constituents. Did you dumb ass Reich wingers not just lose your ass in the election on Nov.7th? Great job assholes, ride the tRump train to the end.

[The Mouth]

21. Courts do it, too

It ought to be enshrined that ANY voter initiative cannot be overturned or modified; government or constitution be damned.

[rpannier]

28. If an initiative wants to reduce or eliminate protections afforded against self-incrimination

right to counsel in a felony trial, eliminate protections of personal property then the voter initiative should take precedent over the constitution? Jim Crow racists would love that idea

[The Mouth]

29. So can courts overrule the will of the people?

Or not?

Can't just say 'YES' when we like the results and 'NO' when we don't.

If something is specifically enshrined in the US Constitution, unambiguously, sure, but it seems to be a thing with both left and right that we're cool with courts overruling popular propositions sometimes and not others. I dislike inconsistency and hypocrisy even more than conservatism.

As far as a legislature or elected official?- hell no, not under any circumstances.

[rpannier]

31. Yes, they can overrule the will of the people

One only read the writings of people like Madison and Hamilton to realize that
To say unambiguous becomes an issue because people like Scalia used it as an excuse to vote down many laws that benefited the poor and minority groups

This is not about whether I like something or not, this is about the Courts making decisions about laws passed by the public, which are bad laws/unconstitutional laws, deciding that those laws are incorrect

I am good with it. I don't always agree with the Courts findings, but I accept them as a matter of how Federalism works

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

22. This is part two of their one-two punch to minimum wage.

Punch #1 was to increase the minimum wage in order to keep this issue off the Nov 18 ballot. Punch #2 is to amend the law to wipe out much of the increase. It was a trick played on Michigan voters and workers.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10583253

[UrbanProspector]

23. None of this kabuke will matter

Once the Big 3 start closing the plants soon. Most of us plebes will learn the true meaning of "rugged individualism"...just sayin'

[Yavin4]

24. When the White working class votes their racism over their economic security

This is what happens.

[iamthebandfanman]

25. Welp, we might get michigan back

come 2020 by using this as proof of the disdain of poor people republicans have in their state.

[RandySF]

26. Legislative trick

Legislature passed those items just to keep them off the ballot. Everyone saw this coming.

[Judi Lynn]

27. So damned treacherous. Thank you, Don Viejo. n/t