Those in the Northern Michigan restaurant industry reacted Friday after the Michigan Supreme Court handed down a ruling that will allow the state’s minimum wage to increase beginning next year.
The state supreme court case centered on a 2018 citizen-led ballot initiative that would have raised the minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2022 and gradually phased out tipped wages.
The then-Republican-led legislature voted to adopt the proposal into law before the 2018 election, and reconvened afterward to weaken the policy’s impact.
The state’s highest court ruled that move unconstitutional, and now beginning next year, wages will increase to about $15.40 an hour by 2030, at which point it will equal the standard wage.
Some restaurant owners and workers said they are concerned about the effects this could have.
Elizabeth Blake, a server at Moose and Stella’s, says, “It will affect the restaurant pricing because ... you have to be able to afford to pay us minimum wage, which will ... turn our customers away because then they won’t be able to pay as much.”
When the minimum wage reaches $15.40, Blake says it still won’t be enough.
“I think that a lot of servers will walk away. ... I have talked to my team here, and none of them say that minimum wage would work for them in their life,” she said.
Because of the expected increase in prices, servers fear they will get lower tips, resulting in less income.
Timothy Bergstrom, owner of Bergstrom Burgers in Traverse City, said he already pays his servers above the tipping wage and minimum wage.
Jessica Flores, manager at Bergstrom Burgers, explains, “I started at 14 already no matter what as a server and we got the tips as well. So we split the tips between the front of the house and the back of house every night. So we start our front of the house with $13 an hour in our back of the house at 14. ... Hopefully it doesn’t change at all.”
Bergstrom doesn’t anticipate much of a change for his restaurant.
“For now, I won’t change our pricing because it’s almost like I predicted the future and set the wage as it is right now,” he says.
He hopes people will still tip because it’s an added incentive for servers.
“And that’s a that’s what we embody here, is for everyone to be treated like a guest in our own house. And we’re going to take care of everyone that comes in. So some people tip, some people don’t. They get a little disconcerted if they don’t have any tips because they’re working really hard. So I encourage people to continue to do so,” Bergstrom says.