Michigan law allows the Legislature to take up a petition drive that has enough signatures to get on the ballot and, instead of placing it on the ballot, vote to adopt the proposal into law without voter approval.

In 2018, the Legislature did just that with a petition drive to raise Michigan’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2022 and eliminate tipped wages, which allow restaurants to pay servers less than minimum wage on the assumption servers would at least make up the difference in tips.

Lawmakers adopted the measure and then immediately voted to amend the proposal, delaying until 2030 the minimum wage and voted to keep tipped wages in place.

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that the Legislature erred by amending the proposal so quickly after adopting it and ordered the state to come up with the new minimum wage that factors in what the minimum wage should have been plus inflation and to gradually get rid of the tipped wage by 2029. In a recent update to that ruling, justices gave the state until 2030 to eliminate tipped wages.

By November, the state is expected to release a new minimum wage schedule. Right now, it’s $10.33 an hour. By February, it’s expected to be more than $12 an hour.

Many small businesses have expressed alarm over the minimum wage hike, saying they’ll have to raise prices and make cuts to be able to afford any kind of workforce, but the tipped wage elimination has drawn particular scrutiny.

Restaurant owners don’t want it because it will cost them money that many of them don’t say they have. Many restaurateurs say they’ll likely have to cut staff — if they can stay open at all — if they have to pay servers a full minimum wage, and that’ll impact the timeliness and quality of the service they can provide.

Many tipped workers don’t want it, either. They’re concerned that, if diners know they’re making more than $12 an hour already, they might be discouraged from leaving tips. Many workers say they’ll end up losing money, too, because they make more in tips than they could on a minimum wage paycheck, even if the minimum wage is more than $12 an hour.

If neither workers nor their bosses want tipped wage eliminated, the Michigan Legislature ought to at least dig more deeply into the issue and collect testimony on the potential impacts of the change.

If they find it truly would hurt the workers the petition drive aimed to aid, they ought to consider changing the law.

— The Alpena News