Michigan

Minimum wage is going up in Michigan and barely anyone will notice because people are doing quite well. But now is the time to raise it, when a recession hits there will be no will to change minimmum wage or increase unemployment benefits.

So the state houses also are raising minimum wage for tipped workers, and boy has that spurred a backlash. There's a Rightwing funded movement to protest this under the gusie of "saving tips." As if tips are effected in any way by the hourly wage the tipped person is making. And it's got some support from workers behind it. So you've got workers showing up in Lansing holding signs and protesting in order for them to make less money. That's how powerful the media machine we are up against is. You can practically get low wage earners to break out into chants of, "Pay me less money!!! I make too much money!!!" My argument is that this will actually increase tips. If bars and restaurants are paying their staff $12 an hour, they might add 50 cents a drink onto the price, or $1 an entree, high total bill leads to higher tips as people are tipping a % of the total. But they've convinced some workers that $12 an hour means tips are going to be eliminated entirely.