An initiative to raise the hourly minimum wage in Michigan to $15 by 2027 will stay off the 2024 ballot, the state Supreme Court ruled, turning down a group’s bid to force the state canvassers board to certify the proposal.
The high court unanimously rejected Raise the Wage Michigan’s arguments Friday in its mandamus action that the Board of State Canvassers was required to certify the proposal, saying “the court is not persuaded that it should grant the requested relief.”
Justice Brian K. Zahra, who agreed with his colleagues, separately wrote that “it is not the role of this court to second guess and question the administration of election disputes properly left to the bipartisan oversight of the Board of State Canvassers.”
The proposed measure would have raised the hourly minimum wage to $12 in 2024, bumping it up to $15 per hour by 2027 and increasing it based on inflation. Currently, the minimum wage in the state is set at about $10 per hour.
Raise the Wage Michigan turned to the Supreme Court in October, shortly after the four-person Board of State Canvassers deadlocked 2-2 along party lines on the ballot initiative following concerns raised by Michigan Opportunity. Michigan Opportunity, an intervening defendant, had argued that the proposal was misleading because it would exempt businesses with 20 or fewer employees from the wage law.
