Gridlock over tipped wages reflects no-compromise reality 

Michigan House Republicans walked off the floor in the middle of lame duck last week in protest over something that’s not remotely partisan. 

Restoring the tipped wage for waitstaff at restaurants? That’s not in the Michigan Republican Party platform. Give it a look, maybe I missed it. 

Yet, the entire Republican caucus stood outside their leader’s office wearing these red buttons reading “Save MI Tips.” 

There’s a long, tortured history of why we are where we are today — why restaurant waitstaff are on the verge of making a $15 minimum wage. Why restaurants are planning on the state’s tipping culture to disappear.  Why professional servers are re-evaluating … everything. 

The history doesn’t matter anymore. What matters is that Michigan’s waitstaffers make $3.93 an hour but get to keep those tips we give them (unless they have some sharing arrangement with the cooks and the hosts, etc.). 

If the Legislature does nothing, it will go up to $5.99 an hour on Feb. 21, to $7.97 an hour on Feb. 21, 2026, and up and up every year until 2030 when they’ll make the same $15-an-hour as a McDonald’s worker. 

It all sounds great except that the expectation is the restaurants will need to jack up their food prices to pay these salaries. Higher food prices=lower tips. Lower tips=lower take-home pay for the waitstaff.  

That’s what the waitstaff believe, anyway. They crammed a pretty large conference room last week inside the Capitol’s new Heritage Hall with darned near 500 pretty pissed-off servers.  

They like the current system. They didn’t ask to be bumped up to minimum wage. If they wanted $15 an hour, they’d be at Wendy’s.  

Shoot, the expected tip these days is 15% minimum, and 20% is getting more common. The high end is 22% or 25%. The waitstaff at the Capitol demonstration said they’re satisfied.  

Organized labor is four-square in support of gradually eliminating the “tipped minimum wage.” For them, it’s about fairness.  

Is it fair that a worker only makes $4 an hour if nobody stops by to eat? (The law says a restaurant must make up whatever an employee doesn’t make in tips up to the minimum wage, FYI). 

Still, the union’s political allies at the Detroit nonprofit Mothering Justice pushed for this change to advance the wages for Michigan workers. They’ve stuck with them since 2014, at least. They’re not going to abandon them now. (After all, do restaurant owners really square up with their waitstaff on a slow day?) 

It’s possible a political deal could be struck somewhere here.  

What if Republicans agreed to a higher minimum wage in exchange for capping the tipped wage at a certain level? 

What if Republicans agreed to sign off on another union priority in exchange for capping the tipped wage at a certain level? 

I’m not a legislator, but those seem like a fair place to start. 

Get the Republicans back in the chamber. Negotiate some type of compromise. Move on to other issues. 

But that’s the issue with today’s political climate. Compromise is a dirty word. Republicans are supposed to fight, fight, fight with Democrats and vice versa.  

The tipped wage reflects more proposed policy in 2024 that isn’t partisan but has become partisan for partisan gain — like getting rid of flavored vapes or requiring serial numbers on guns spit out from a 3D printer. 

The easy thing to do is shut everything down. Leave the chamber. End session. Blame it on partisanship. Use it as a talking point for the next election. 

The hard thing to do is talk, to communicate, to compromise on something, improve a situation a little bit for everyone. 

It’s been done. I’ve seen it many, many, many times.  

But in 2023 and 2024, it hasn’t been. Not one thing needing bipartisan collaboration with legislative leaders and the governor has passed this term. Not once. 

Unless something changes, we won’t see it in lame duck or on this issue, either. 

(Kyle Melinn is the editor of the Capitol news service MIRS. Email him at melinnky@gmail.com.