LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – A national nonprofit group says it has turned in more than 610,000 petition signatures to the Secretary of State on Tuesday for its Raise the Wage initiative.

The proposed 2024 ballot measure brought by One Fair Wage would raise Michigan’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2027 and phase out a lower-than-minimum wage for tipped, disabled, and youth workers.

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This isn’t the first time One Fair Wage, a national nonprofit group, has inserted itself into Michigan politics. In 2018, a similar petition to raise Michigan’s minimum wage to $12 by 2022 and guarantee sick leave for workers made the November ballot. However, Michigan lawmakers adopted the resolution before the election.

After the 2018 election, legislators amended it to lower the wage and sick leave increases. A Court of Claims judge ruled last week this adopt-and-amend strategy was unconstitutional, therefore setting up the unamended law to take effect.

Appeals are ongoing.

In the meantime, the Bureau of Elections will review the signatures and assess their validity; it needs 340,047 signatures to be valid. If the signatures are validated, the Board of State Canvassers would vote to put it on the ballot.