The initiative campaign to increase Michigan’s minimum wage took another step Tuesday toward putting a question on the 2022 ballot.
The Raise the Wage Michigan campaign filed with state elections officials a summary of its proposal that will appear on the petition form. The campaign will also file a copy of the petition form, but that will come later.
The initiative would raise the state minimum wage to 15 dollars by 2027, says campaign attorney Mark Brewer.
“First and foremost, it’s to raise the minimum wage in Michigan for all workers to 15 dollars an hour by 2027, and that will be done in one-dollar increments beginning in 2023,” he said.
It would also index the minimum wage to inflation.
“That’s been a real problem with the minimum wage – no inflationary increases over the years,” he said.
The initiative would also set the same minimum wage for tipped and untipped workers.
Republicans in the Legislature circumvented a similar effort in 2018 by adopting a similar petition initiative instead of letting it go to the ballot and then amending it with a more modest minimum wage increase.