Late on February 20, 2025, the House and Senate came to a bipartisan deal on the Earned Sick Time Act (ESTA), set to go into effect on Friday, February 21, 2025. The bill was voted on at approximately 11:30pm Thursday, February 20 and signed by Governor Whitmer the next day.

Negotiations on House Bill 4002 took place between House Republicans and Senate Democrats, who control their respective chambers. Senate Democrats took discussions right up to the wire and steadfastly refused any exemptions previously advocated by House and Senate Republicans including small business, part-time, and seasonal employees. Speaker Matt Hall (R-42) deserves many kudos for his efforts on behalf of small business during negotiations.

Due to the nature of split government and political realities, this bill does not contain all of the provisions NFIB would like to see, however, it is a vast improvement from what was set to go into place and allows for more flexibility.

NFIB hosted a webinar on Monday, February 24, 2025, to go over all of the changes in the new bill. You can access the webinar HERE.

The Governor also signed Senate Bill 8, passed earlier in the week, which makes changes to the minimum wage and preserves the tipped wage for restaurant servers. See changes to the minimum and tipped wage here.

NFIB has been fighting ESTA and for preservations of the tipped wage for over 6 years, in both previous legislatures and the courts. Since July 31, 2024, when the Michigan Supreme Court overturned legislation passed in 2018, NFIB worked non-stop to make the legislation more workable for small business owners. (Either the press release or the webpage, whichever is better).

NFIB will continue to fight for a small business exemption in this legislature and beyond.

Additional Resources:

Slide deck from NFIB ESTA Webinar
Changes between the original initiated legislation and House Bill 4002
Dept. of Labor and Economic Opportunity Earned Sick Time FAQ, Webinar, and Workplace Poster