Michigan Has A Slate Of New Laws Set To Take Effect In 2025

Michigan, like many other states, have new laws set to go into effect in 2025 which range from minimum wage increases, tipped minimum wage increases, earned sick time adjustments, adjustments to unemployment benefits and AED and CPR training requirements

Like many other states, Michigan has new laws set to go into effect in 2025, ranging from minimum wage increases, tipped minimum wage increases, earned sick time adjustments, adjustments to unemployment benefits, and AED and CPR training requirements, among others.

According to ABC 74, a package of bills signed into law by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will take effect 91 days after the end of the 2024 legislative session.

Principal among them is a set of minimum wage increases, the first of which takes place on New Year’s Day, increasing the minimum wage from $10.33 to $10.56. On Feb. 21, 2025, the minimum wage will increase again to $12.48.

In addition to a general minimum wage increase, tipped workers will receive an increase that equals 48% of Michigan’s minimum wage.

On Feb. 21, 2025, employees will also gain additional benefits in the form of accruing one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked, but they cannot use more than 40 hours of that earned sick time in a year unless their employer selects a higher limit.

Sick time must be paid at the same rate, either the normal hourly pay for the employee who takes it or the minimum wage established by the Workforce Opportunity Act.

Michigan residents will also receive an increase in their weekly unemployment benefits. The allotment will increase from $362 to $614, marking the first increase in those benefits since 2003.

Unemployment benefits are typically paid out between 20 to 26 weeks for unemployed Michigan residents who qualify.

After Gov. Whitmire signed legislation in April 2024, Michigan high school coaches are required to maintain CPR and AED equipment certification.

In addition, the high schools where they teach must maintain an emergency cardiac plan to quickly respond to any cardiac arrest event experienced by a student-athlete.

As Cindie DeWolf, a senior mission advancement advisor for the American Heart Association, told CBS Detroit, “That means they’re surrounded by adults and other children that know how to do CPR, that know that there’s an AED and where it is, and that it’s accessible. Minutes mean everything in a sudden cardiac arrest.”

House Bill 4361 established a tax credit for organ donors. The credit will go into effect on New Year’s Day and is intended to assist donors with the cost of donating, such as lost wages or medical bills.

Taxpayers may also claim a one-time credit against the tax credit equal to the unreimbursed live organ donation expenses accrued during the year or $10,000, whichever amount is the lesser.

According to Local 4, Michigan’s Republican-led Legislature tried to circumvent and amend the proposals for the Earned Sick Time Act and the Workforce Opportunity Wage Act, which, per Michigan law, should have been on the ballot in 2018. Instead, they passed the proposals and attempted to scale back the laws at the request of a business lobby.

In July 2024, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that this was unconstitutional and that the rules must be reverted to what they were when the proposals were passed and then instituted.

According to Justice Kyra Bolden’s concurring opinion, “I join the majority opinion in full to hold that 2018 PA 368 and 2018 PA 369 are unconstitutional because they amended ballot initiatives that had been adopted into law within the same legislative session, an act that was not included in the three options provided to the Legislature under the initiative clause of the Michigan Constitution.”

Justice Bolden continued, “I agree with the majority that the plain text of the Constitution distinctly specifies that the Legislature has three options. Adopting the initiative is one avenue; however, adopting it and amending it within the same legislative session is not one of those options. Plainly, the Legislature was without constitutional authority to take such actions.”