- Mothering Justice and advocates for minimum wage and earned sick time protections.
- Lawmakers are attempting to make changes to the minimum wage and earned sick time laws.
- The bills are set to take February 21.
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"We need earned paid sick time," Deputy Director of Organizing with Mothering Justice Aisha Wells said.
Aisha Wells is with Mothering Justice, the organization pushing to put the minimum wage and earned sick time into effect.
She is also a mother and knows what it means to have a child fall ill.
Her job didn't give her paid sick time off to take of her son.
"It was devastating and so I vowed I'd never have another mother go through it again," Wells said.
It's a topic I have been covering at the capitol for months now and it all surrounds the Minimum Wage and Earned Sick Time Acts set to take effect February 21.
That act requires businesses to provide paid sick time.
Advocates like Wells want that to happen but we've also heard some opposition.
"The House bill that fixes many of those concerns are very essential to the future of small business in Michigan," Small Business Association of Michigan CEO Brian Calley said.
Small Business Association of Michigan Brian Calley supports the move by House Republicans to amend those bills, which would essentially keep the minimum wage in place and lower the restrictions on earned sick time to help businesses.
"The 84% of small businesses already offer paid time off and they do so that is extremely flexible. Unlike this law which is extremely inflexible in how it works," Calley said.
But Wells says this is supposed to help any neighbor who needs it.
"We need to change our culture on how we see paid sick time. It's not a luxury. It's a necessity for working people," Well said.
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