The Coalition to Support MI Employment Certainty has come together to oppose pending legislation giving Michigan’s 1,800-plus local units of government the ability to enact their own laws governing wages and other employee benefits. 

The coalition’s opposition to giving this power to local officials is not about whether employers should offer a fair wage or any other particular benefit. Rather, it is about who should make these decisions. We support decision making at the state and federal level so as to avoid a complex web of rules and regulations governing private employers’ relations with their employees. Doing otherwise will create inconsistency, confusion, and a bureaucratic, red-tape nightmare for job providers--and employees.

Michigan is not alone in giving the state sole authority to regulate private employment policies. Forty-four states have moved to preempt local labor laws, a trend that has picked up significantly since 2013.

Nearly three dozen organizations across Michigan have banded together to oppose this legislation, which could make some areas of our state's “high-cost islands,” limiting community access to jobs and necessities, reducing incentives to invest and, ultimately, discouraging population and economic growth in our state.