State Rep. Jerry Neyer on Thursday supported legislative measures to protect small businesses and tipped workers from mandates set to take effect at 12:01 a.m. on Friday. In a bipartisan vote, the House passed a bipartisan plan – House Bill 4002 – to protect small businesses from unrealistic sick time rules while ensuring workers have access to leave time.

“The legislative process can be tough, but days like today prove that our system works,” said Neyer, R-Shepherd. “Two sides with vastly different viewpoints recognized there was a problem and set aside their partisan differences to find solutions. House Republicans spearheaded this effort, but we wouldn’t have a common-sense plan that keeps businesses open and servers working without Senate Democrats who were willing to abandon their liberal ideals to protect our state. It wasn’t easy, but we can leave Lansing this week knowing we did what had to be done.”

HB 4002 guarantees all workers have access to sick time while clarifying the strict, complex rules that were originally set to take effect. The plan allows employers of all sizes to choose the sick time plan that works best for their businesses and create unique policies regarding “no call, no show” incidents. The legislation also safeguards businesses from baseless lawsuits and other attacks from left-wing activists.

A plan to protect tipped workers, Senate Bill 8, passed the House Wednesday, maintains the tip credit at 38% through 2025 while implementing annual wage increases, eventually capping at 50% of the minimum wage in 2031. The plan also heightens the penalties for employers who fail to fairly compensate their staff.

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