LANSING ? Michigan Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville has introduced a bill to increase the minimum wage to $8.15 an hour by September 1, 2014, but do so in a way that could negate a ballot proposal seeking a much bigger increase.
?The majority leader is introducing it to open up the discussion about minimum wage,? said Amber McCann, Mr. Richardville?s (R-Monroe) spokesperson. ?He understands that the people in Michigan want to talk about this issue and so he wants to begin the discussion and see where we go from that point. Whether or not we?d like to get any additional pieces to his legislation is yet to be determined.?
But the bill, which would repeal the current minimum wage law, PA 154 of 1964, and enact a new one, leaves to question what that would do for the current ballot proposal finding signatures to raise the minimum wage. That proposal would gradually increase the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, index it to inflation and bring tipped workers up to that wage from their current $2.65 per hour pay.
The ballot proposal would amend the existing minimum wage law, PA 154 of 1964. So if the Legislature passed Mr. Richardville?s bill, SB 934, and Governor Rick Snyder signed it, the proposal would attempt to amend a law that no longer exists and that could put the proposal from Raise Michigan into serious legal jeopardy.
McCann said the bill would, in fact, negate the ballot proposal. She reiterated that Richardville opposes the proposal.
?He does think it goes too far,? she said. ?The majority leader thinks they?ve done a lot in Michigan to put the economy in a good spot. We?re starting to turn the corner, we?re making progress, and he doesn?t want to see the proposal on the ballot do anything to derail that progress.?
SB 934 was held on the Senate floor and not referred to a committee.
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