What do you need to know to hire in Michigan?
A flat state income tax, a $13.73 wage floor, and an Earned Sick Time Act that reaches employers of every size. Each Michigan guide below takes one layer of state rule.
· Michigan, United States guide
Illustration · Lansing, Michigan
Michigan charges a flat state income tax, so withholding reads the same for every salary. The unemployment-insurance schedule, the Earned Sick Time Act, and the at-will exceptions are where the real work sits.
The federal floor is identical to every other state: FLSA, FICA, FUTA and FMLA set the baseline. Everything Michigan adds on top is what these guides cover.
Most employers budget for the unemployment wage base and miss that the Earned Sick Time Act reaches a team of 10 or fewer. This page is the map; each guide is the detail.
What do you need to know to hire in Michigan?
Michigan runs on the federal employment floor with a flat state income tax on the pay side and a sharp set of rules on the leave and separation side. The state minimum is $13.73 an hour, overtime starts at the 40-hour federal week, and the Earned Sick Time Act applies on top.
Where Michigan gets specific is unemployment insurance, paid earned sick time, and the federal claim layer that survives at-will. Each guide below takes one of those layers.
Sienna runs payroll for a 12-person team and just approved her first Michigan hire. The federal stack she already knows still applies: Social Security and Medicare on every paycheck, FUTA, and FMLA once the company passes 50 employees. Michigan layers its own flat income-tax withholding, its own unemployment tax, and the Earned Sick Time Act on top.
Start from the United States overview for the federal baseline. This page is the Michigan-specific layer, and the four guides below break it into the questions an employer actually asks before a first hire.
What does an employer actually pay in Michigan?
The Michigan-specific cost is flat-rate income-tax withholding plus unemployment insurance, on top of the federal pass-through. The Earned Sick Time Act adds paid leave you accrue rather than a payroll tax.
Employees accrue one hour of paid earned sick time for every 30 hours worked. A large employer can cap use at 72 hours a year, a small employer of 10 or fewer at 40 hours.
State income tax: a single flat rate Michigan withholds on every salary, with local city taxes in places like Detroit on top. Minimum wage: $13.73 an hour, with $5.49 cash for tipped roles once tips reach $8.24 an hour. Overtime: 1.5 times pay after 40 hours a week, no daily rule, no adult meal-break mandate.
Unemployment insurance: Michigan sets a state taxable wage base, a new-employer rate, and an experience-rated range once an account has history, all filed quarterly with the UIA. Earned Sick Time Act: accrual of one hour per 30 hours worked, capped at 72 hours for large employers and 40 for small. Final pay: a discharged worker is paid as soon as the amount can be determined, a resignation on the next regular payday, no fixed day count either way.
Sources: Michigan LEO Unemployment Insurance Agency, employers and US DOL state minimum wage.
The figures above are the headline. The detail, from the flat withholding rate and the personal exemption to the SUTA wage base, the new-employer rate, and the tip credit, sits in the Michigan tax and unemployment guide and the wage and overtime guide.
The Michigan guides, one layer at a time
Four Michigan guides are live, one per layer of state rule. Each answers the questions an employer asks before the first hire, with the statutory numbers pulled from the same Michigan source set.
State income tax & unemployment insurance
The flat withholding rate, the personal exemption, the Detroit city tax, the SUTA wage base and new-employer rate, and the quarterly UIA filing rhythm.
Wage, overtime & meal break law
The $13.73 floor, the 40-hour overtime week, the tip credit, and why Michigan mandates no adult meal break.
Paid family & sick leave
The Earned Sick Time Act accrual of one hour per 30 worked, the 72 and 40-hour use caps, and what federal FMLA covers at 50+ employees.
Termination & at-will exceptions
The public-policy and ELCRA exceptions, the no-fixed-day final-pay rule under PA 390, and the federal WARN math at 100 employees and 60 days.
The Michigan worker-classification guide, the state's test for employee versus contractor, is the next one we're building. Need it sooner? Tell us and we'll move it up the queue.
How does Michigan compare to its neighbours?
Michigan pairs a flat income tax with a real paid-sick-leave mandate, and each neighbour breaks the pattern somewhere. The federal floor is identical; the state layer is not.
Cross a state line and the math changes. Indiana runs its own flat income tax plus county-level income taxes Michigan doesn't layer the same way. Ohio uses a bracketed state income tax rather than Michigan's single flat rate. Wisconsin sets a higher SUTA wage base and its own bracketed income tax, and none of the three mirror Michigan's Earned Sick Time Act.
If you're hiring across the region, read each state's guides before you set payroll. The structure is the same everywhere; the SUTA base, the leave mandate, and the termination rules are not.
How does Teamed hire in Michigan for you?
Teamed becomes your legal employer of record in Michigan for $599 per employee per month, flat, with zero FX mark-up in any currency. Payroll, the flat-rate withholding, the unemployment registration, the Earned Sick Time Act accrual, and the federal stack run on one platform.
There's no setup fee and no exit fee, and statutory employer cost passes through at cost, itemised on every invoice.
Real HR and legal experts handle your Michigan hires, from the first offer letter to a contested termination. An actual person, not a chatbot or a pooled queue, who knows the Earned Sick Time Act caps and the PA 390 final-pay rule. There's no setup fee and no exit fee, the platform tracks every federal trigger in real time, and statutory employer cost passes through at cost, itemised on every invoice.
Contractor onboarding, EOR payroll, and entity setup live on one platform. A Michigan contractor who converts to W-2 keeps their record, and that same employee can graduate from EOR to your own US entity without re-onboarding. Run the Crossover Calculator to see the month the model flips. EOR is the right model for a first Michigan hire, until it isn't.
Michigan reads as a flat-tax state with a light wage code, then the Earned Sick Time Act reaches a team of ten and the final-pay rule sets no day count to hide behind. These guides exist so the first Michigan hire never becomes the first Michigan filing.
Michigan looks straightforward to hire in. A flat income tax, at-will employment, a clear hourly floor at $13.73.
The straightforward part ends at leave and separation. The Earned Sick Time Act reaches a team of ten, and a federal claim ignores at-will entirely.
Read the right guide before the first hire, not after the first dispute.
