Metro Detroit Democrat: Debate over tipped wage law 'emblematic' of party fracture
A state senator from Livonia was criticized by fellow Metro Detroit Democrats and liberal activists on social media after she defended her vote to stall a court-ordered minimum wage increase.
The debate over whether to scale back a court-ordered minimum wage increase due to concerns a wage hike would cripple Michigan restaurants took a heated turn over the weekend.
Democratic activists are drawing a line in the sand over the Michigan Senate’s vote last Thursday to change the state’s minimum wage law before it was set to take effect this Friday. One Metro Detroit Democrat told me the vote and the debate that followed is emblematic of the current fractures within the Democratic Party following the 2024 presidential election.
The bill passed by the Senate last week increases the state’s min. wage from $10.56 to $12.48, increasing a little more than a dollar each year until hitting $15 in 2027. The tipped minimum wage would remain at 38% of the minimum wage, then increase to 50% by 2031. The original proposal ordered by the Michigan Supreme Court to take effect this month, would have done away with the tipped wage altogether by 2030.
Sen. Dayna Polehanki (D-Livonia), who voted with Republicans and seven other Democrats to stall the wage increase last week, faced fierce criticism on social media, including from the account of the activists behind Distill Social, a prominent non-profit media team advancing Democratic caucuses.
In response, Polehanki posted a photo of the progressive activists who run Distill Social, saying, “They are wealthy suburbanites who think they know better than you, me, and pretty much everyone they don’t agree with.”
Polehanki later deleted the posts.
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