Community Empowerment Matters

  On June 27, 2025, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers approved language for a ballot proposal to amend the Michigan State Constitution Article IX, sections 7 and 11. [1] These amendments, as approved, would add a 5% surcharge to individual filers with taxable income over $500,000 and place the proceeds from said surcharge into a newly created fund titled the “State School Aid Fund.” [2] According to the Invest in MI Kids Coalition’ website and the language added to Section 11 of Article IX, 100% of the money deposited into this fund would be used to “support local classrooms in local school districts, included funding for career and technical education, attracting and retaining high-quality educators, and reducing class sizes.” [3] While, on the surface, this amendment sounds great for improving schooling quality throughout the state, it is important to fully understand the impacts this surcharge may have on certain small businesses and the potential greater effect it may h...

Image Source: Creative Commons [1]   1.Where Things Stand Today At the state level, Michigan wage and hour laws largely rely on the IRS’s “20-factor test” and its broader “economic realities” framework in determining whether a given worker may be classified as an independent contractor or an employee. The 20-factor approach looks at a myriad of factors broadly grouped into three categories: behavioral control, financial control, and relationship factors. No single factor is outright determinative and investigators weigh multiple factors (integration into business, right to fire, opportunity for profit/loss, who supplies tools, etc.). [2] This distinction is particularly important for entities in the initial stages of business development. Independent contractors, as opposed to employees, are generally the classification of choice for such businesses, owing to the relatively lesser costs and administrative burdens that come with contractors. For example, employees must have wa...

  Halloween has already passed, but as a lowly law student with arithmophobia, I feel compelled to provide you all with some spooky statistics in November. It is no secret that the upper ranks of America’s professional workforce have a diversity problem, and in particular, a racial diversity problem. Unfortunately, this remains true in the nonprofit sector: -           Studies have shown that just 20% of nonprofit executive directors and CEOs are people of color, and 66% of nonprofit Board members are white. [1] -           Another study reported that between July 2019 and January 2024, “ 47% of all staff… 70% of CEOs/Executive Directors (EDs)... as well as 66% of Board members identify as white.” [2] Compare these figures with the general population per USAFacts: over 40% of the U.S. population identified as non-white in 2023, a figure that has grown over 17% since 1990. [3] ...