DETROIT — Advocates, along with actress and activist Jane Fonda, held a Friday press conference calling for a raised minimum wage for all Michigan workers nearly a year after state lawmakers approved a compromise minimum wage law.

The event, held by the national group One Fair Wage, took place at Yum Village, an Afro-Caribbean restaurant in Detroit, where all of the workers earn $15 an hour, plus tips, owner Godwin Ihentuge said.

During the half-hour press conference, advocates with One Fair Wage called for the Michigan Legislature and Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to restore the minimum wage law voters aimed to get on the ballot for the November 2018 election. The measure never made it on the ballot, with state Republicans signing it into law in September of that year and later amending it into a watered-down version.

In July 2024, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in a 4-3 decision that the Republican-led Legislature unconstitutionally approved the petitions for earned sick leave and the minimum wage and later amended them. The high court's majority decided the original minimum wage and paid leave proposals should go into effect on Feb. 21, 2025, mirroring the delay before implementation that would have occurred in 2018. The citizen-initiated proposals created phased-in increases in the minimum wage, along with initially setting it at $10 an hour.

Restaurant workers who spoke at Friday's event said they deserved a higher set wage, along with tips. They pointed to the physical demands of the job, along with the harassment servers, particularly women, face from some customers. The current minimum wage for servers, which as of January rose to $5.49 per hour, isn't enough, they said.

"We are paid subminimum wage," 23-year-old Texas Roadhouse server Zakiya Brown said. "Tips depend on someone's mood, their bias and the economy, which are completely out of our control. No other profession is expected to gamble their livelihood. ... I deserve to make the same amount of money as other hourly workers because I do the same amount of work."

But John Sellek, the spokesperson for Save MI Tips, a group representing certain tipped workers and others, said that if any workers earn less than the state minimum wage through the combination of the tipped wage rate plus tips, state law specifies "the restaurant pays the difference."

One Fair Wage has been gathering signatures for a ballot measure to repeal the amended initiative, Public Act 1, since last month, One Fair Wage President Saru Jayaraman said. With Public Act 1 repealed, all workers would earn $15 an hour and tipped workers would receive tips on top of the set wage under the envisioned proposal.

Jayaraman said the group has already gathered 50,000 signatures and needs a total of 300,000 for the ballot measure. She said she is "extremely confident" the organization would get there.

The Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association previously lobbied against the voter initiatives, arguing it would raise the costs for restaurant owners, particularly small restaurants. A group made up of servers, Save MI Tips, also pushed for the lower minimum wage.

Jayaraman said those groups ran a "misinformation campaign."

Save MI Tips' Sellek called One Fair Wages' work a "misinformation campaign."

"They keep throwing out the claim that the tips can be on top of the wage, but the workers and bartenders who know said that won't work," he said.

Sellek pointed to fears that people would tip less if servers were paid $15 an hour. He added that these jobs in particular allow anyone to learn to do the job, have flexible hours and be able to make enough money.

"They think if this California dark money group brings a millionaire celebrity to Michigan, they win," he said. "It's my understanding that they didn't collect any signatures at the event. I don't know how they're going to get the signatures by March in the middle of the winter."

Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association President and CEO Justin Winslow said in an emailed statement that removing Public Act 1 would reverse a bipartisan solution that was informed by input from tens of thousands of Michigan servers, business owners and community diners.

"Today's event is a transparent attempt to resurrect a failed campaign that doesn’t represent the real voices of Michigan servers," Winslow said. "This misguided referendum effort by 'Voters to Stop Pay Cuts' — which is simply One Fair Wage under a new name after repeated national failures and campaign-finance violations — would ironically deliver the very pay cuts they claim to oppose. Suspending PA 1 would slow Michigan's path to a $15 minimum wage. ... We urge voters to decline to sign this irresponsible attempt to undermine worker-focused legislation that reflects the voices of actual Michiganders, not out-of-state interests."

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