Michigan Senate Republicans are crying foul as the Democratic leadership has still not advanced legislation that would change the state’s minimum wage law to preserve tipped wages and avoid changes to paid sick leave rules.

State Senator Aric Nesbitt tells us the deadline is February 21 for a plan to be approved that prevents tipped workers, like restaurant servers, from being moved to a higher minimum wage. Many fear that would mean the loss of tips.

“The House passed a bipartisan package of bills that would save 50,000 restaurant jobs and the tip credit and save paid time off for hard-working families around the state, instead of a state-mandated, one-size-fits-all sick leave policy,” Nesbitt said. “Unfortunately, Senate Democrats and the Senate Democrat majority have not taken up those issues yet.”

Nesbitt says it’s been “crickets” from the Democrats on the House-approved legislation. So, what have the Democrats been doing?

“They have dropped bills that would essentially do nothing to fix this problem, and they’ve been creating them as potentially a vote on those.”

However, Nesbitt says those bills would not save the restaurant jobs being threatened.

Restaurant groups say without a change, they’ll be forced to drastically increase the pay of wait staff, creating a new hardship for them at a time when they’re still recovering from COVID. Nesbitt says the legislation hasn’t even been assigned to a committee. He’s hoping for some kind of action next week.