How much Michigan's minimum wage will increase on Jan. 1, 2023 - and why it could be more

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (FOX 2) - Four years ago, Michigan voters approved a petition to raise the state's minimum wage to $12 per hour by 2022. But it's almost the end of 2022 and that hasn't happened due to changes made by legislators in 2018. However, minimum wage will still go up at the start of 2023 - and it could go higher later in the year.

According to the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, minimum wage will increase from $9.87 per hour to $10.10 per hour - an increase of $0.23 per hour worked versus the minimum wage in 2022.

However, that increase is only for adults who make minimum wage. Minors will a minimum wage increase to $8.59 ($0.20 more per hour) while tipped employees, primarily in the restaurant industry, will see an hour rate of $3.84 ($0.09 more). The training wage of $4.25 per hour for newly hired employees ages 16 to 19 for their first 90 days of employment remains unchanged.

It could have been $3 more per hour by 2023.

In 2018, the petition put together by One Fair Wage was approved that would have raised the state's minimum wage to $12 per hour by the start of 2022. It would also raise the minimum wage for tipped workers to 80% of the standard minimum wage in 2022, 90% in 2023 and ultimately match it in 2024.

Instead, in a lame-duck session pushed by largely Republican legislators changed it before it could go into effect. In 2018, the GOP-controlled Legislature engaged in "adopt and amend," a controversial and unprecedented strategy. To prevent minimum wage and sick time ballot drives from going to the electorate, after which they would have been much harder to change if voters had passed them, legislators approved them so they could be made more business-friendly after the election with simple majority votes and the signature of the outgoing Republican governor, Rick Snyder.

READ MORE: AG says election law passed during lame duck session unconstitutional

Instead of paying workers $12 per hour by 2022, the 2018 legislature required a gradual increase to $12.05 per hour by 2030. It also kept the tipped minimum wage at 38% of the standard rate.

But that could change. In July 2022, a judge on the Court of Claims threw out those changes but entered an order staying the effect of this decision until February 19, 2023, to give employers and the relevant state agencies time to accommodate the changes required by the ruling. That ruling was appealed. 

Under the law as originally approved by voters, minimum wage employees would be making $13.03 per hour in 2023 while tipped workers would be making $11.73 per hour.

TAOS, NEW MEXICO - MAY 15, 2019: Money in a tip jar in a Taos, New Mexico, coffee shop includes a two dollar bill. (Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images)