July 21, 2022

Minimum Wage ruling by Court

Did Michigan’s minimum wage just rise to $12-an-hour because of a court ruling?

$12/hour.

By Ben Orner | borner@mlive.com

A Tuesday evening Michigan Court of Claims decision ruled the state legislature unlawfully softened a 2018 ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage and require earned paid sick leave when it enacted the proposal with smaller pay bumps.

But does that really mean Michigan’s minimum wage increased from $9.87 to $12 – and the tipped wage from $3.75 to $9.60 – literally overnight? The state’s labor agency says not yet.

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In 2018, the Republican-controlled legislature chose to enact and amend a ballot initiative increasing the minimum wage and paid sick leave instead of let it appear before voters in November.

The original would have allowed 72 hours of paid leave yearly, plus increased the minimum wage to $12 by 2022 and the minimum tipped wage to $9.60 by then. But lawmakers scaled those back to 40 hours of leave and a $12 minimum wage by 2030.

Court of Claims Judge Douglas Shapiro ruled Tuesday that it was unconstitutional when the legislature adopted the law in September 2018 then amended it after the election in the same legislative session.

“To hold otherwise would effectively thwart the power of the people to initiate laws and then vote on those same laws — a power expressly reserved to the people in the Michigan Constitution,” Shapiro wrote.



More: https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2022/07/michigans-minimum-wage-will-go-up-if-new-court-ruling-stands.html

July 14, 2022

Michigan governor signs executive order to protect abortion providers and patients from extradition

Source: CNN

Michigan's Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order on Wednesday that limits her office from extraditing people to or from Michigan if they're facing criminal charges for obtaining, providing or assisting an abortion.

The order signed by Whitmer, who has been supportive of abortion rights, aims to protect women who travel to Michigan seeking an abortion and Michigan abortion providers "who will not have to fear being extradited for prosecution in another state for offering abortion services," according to a news release from her office.

A provider who conducts a telehealth visit from Michigan for a patient in another state and prescribes a medical abortion will also not be extradited, Whitmer's office told CNN. The order, however, would not apply to a person who performs an abortion while in a state where it is banned.

"I cannot in good conscience participate in other states' efforts to make it a crime to exercise a fundamental right or to punish health-care providers," Whitmer said in her executive order.




Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/13/politics/michigan-whitmer-executive-order-abortion/index.html