I’ll keep this short and (not so) sweet. You can read the rest HERE.
Most of you know that the group Michigan Time to Care gathered and submitted more than 380,000 signatures to put a solid paid sick leave law on the ballot in Michigan in November. The legislature took up the issue and passed the legislation. Gov. Rick Snyder then signed it into law. It would have allowed workers to earn an hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked up to 72 hours per year. It exempted companies with 5 or less employees.
The Republicans didn’t do this as a benevolent gesture to workers and an effort to keep sick people from having to serve our food or handle our cash and packages. The did it because if it had passed as a ballot measure, they would have had to muster a 75% majority to overturn it. By passing the legislation themselves, they need only a simple majority.
And that’s what they did.
Paid sick time, which was supposed to accrue to one hour for every 30 hours worked, or 72 hours per year, was cut to one hour for every 35 hours worked, or a maximum of 40 hours per year. And businesses with 50 or fewer employees were exempted from the paid sick time provisions. The ballot proposal would have exempted businesses with five or fewer employees.
Here’s the kicker, something not mentioned in any other reporting that I have seen:
The most recent census data, from 2015, shows that Michigan has 162,003 firms with fewer than 50 employees. That’s out of a total of 173,309 firms. In other words, 93.5% of the firms in Michigan would be exempted from having to allow their employees earn paid sick time leave.
Like I said, more HERE.