LANSING, MI – While Michigan’s minimum wage rate will increase $1.25 per hour beginning January 1, 2026, there will also be a hike in the tipped wage after legislative negotiations earlier this year.
The minimum wage will increase from $12.48 to $13.73 per hour as set by Michigan’s Improved Workforce Opportunity Wage Act, which establishes the annual schedule of increases. The 85% rate for minors age 16 and 17 will increase from $10.60 to $11.67 per hour.
Michigan lawmakers brokered an eleventh-hour deal in February resolving a seven-year fight over what tip earners get paid. The tipped employee rate of hourly pay increases to $5.49 per hour, 40% of the full minimum wage, provided the employee receives at least $8.24 in tips. It will rise to 50% of the state’s standard minimum wage by 2031.
The rate for nontipped employees, which the law bumped to $12.48 from $10.56, will hit $15 by 2027.
In July, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled Republican lawmakers acted illegally in 2018 when they adopted initiatives on minimum wage and paid sick leave to circumvent a statewide vote on the measures, and later watered down the proposals.
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