What is current minimum wage in Michigan? Rate will increase in 2026.

The minimal wage in Michigan will improve once more on January 1, because the state as soon as once more raises its hourly wage flooring.

The minimal wage in Michigan for grownup employees can be $13.73 per hour beginning January 1, 2026, based on the state Division of Labor and Financial Alternative. The tipped minimal wage is $5.49 per hour, 40% of the usual minimal wage.

For minors, the minimal hourly wage is $11.67, 85% of the standard minimum wage.

The tipped minimal wage is the decrease hourly price paid to workers who’re anticipated to make nearly all of their revenue from suggestions, reminiscent of restaurant servers and bartenders. If they do not meet the usual minimal wage with suggestions, their employer is legally obligated to make up the distinction. That is additionally referred to as the tip credit score.

Michigan’s new minimal wage schedule was launched in February, when lawmakers and Governor Gretchen Whitmer accepted a plan to override a courtroom ruling that may have phased out the state’s tipped minimal wage. That regulation set the minimal wage at $12.48 per hour in 2025. Earlier than the present plan was applied in mid-February, Michigan’s minimal wage was $10.56 per hour in early 2025.

After growing to $13.73 per hour by 2026, Michigan’s minimal wage will improve to $15 per hour by 2027. The tipped minimal wage will even improve, with a further 2% improve in the usual minimal wage by way of 2031, after which it will likely be capped at 50% of the usual minimal wage.

After Michigan’s minimal wage reaches $15 per hour in 2027, any subsequent will increase can be tied to inflation.

The minimal wage sparked dialogue in 2025

Michigan’s present minimal wage schedule was the end result of a years-long authorized and legislative battle.

In 2018, a gaggle referred to as Michigan One Honest Wage tried to position a petition initiative on the poll with the purpose of elevating the minimal wage to $12 per hour by 2022 and eliminating the tipped minimal wage. The state Legislature adopted the petition’s wording however modified it to delay the rise to $12 an hour till 2030 and protect the tipped minimal wage.

However in July 2024, the Michigan Supreme Court docket dominated that the Legislature’s “go and amend” tactic was unconstitutional as a result of it bypassed the petition initiative course of and didn’t give voters an opportunity to resolve the proposal. In its order, the courtroom dominated that Michigan should undertake a brand new minimal wage scale, adjusted for inflation. Below the wage scale set by the courtroom, the minimal wage would have elevated to $12.48 per hour on February 21, and would steadily improve till it reached $14.97 per hour by 2028. The courtroom’s ruling would even have resulted within the eventual phase-out of the tipped minimal wage by 2030.

Restaurant and hospitality teams and a few tipped employees referred to as on lawmakers to protect the tip credit score, resulting in Senate Invoice 8’s passage in February. That invoice was instantly signed into regulation by Whitmer, preserving a tipped minimal wage in Michigan and creating the present wage flooring schedule.

You may attain Arpan at alobo@freepress.com