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Advocates for workers warn minimum wage hike, paid sick time laws could be revoked in lame duck

Advocates for workers say state legislators are planning to weaken or gut new laws during the lame duck session that give people the right to paid sick time and an increase in the minimum wage.

The laws were passed in September in order to keep voter referendums off the November ballot.  

Gilda Jacobs is with the Michigan League for Public Policy.

She says the Legislature is using lame duck to go against the will of the people.

Lame duck is a term for the period between the end of one legislative session and the next.

"They know that there is a lack of public scrutiny," Jacobs said during a press conference call. "They call this dark of night for a reason."

Jacobs says people should call their state representatives to urge them to vote against any bills that gut the laws.

She says increasing the minimum wage and giving people paid sick time is not just good for those people but good for the economy.

The minimum wage law currently phases in increases to the minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2022.

Under the paid sick time law, employees could earn at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 72 hours per year. Employees who work for small businesses, or those with fewer than 10 employees, could accrue up to 40 hours of paid leave each year and another 32 hours of unpaid sick leave.

Tracy Samilton covers energy and transportation, including the auto industry and the business response to climate change for Michigan Public. She began her career at Michigan Public as an intern, where she was promptly “bitten by the radio bug,” and never recovered.
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