Verified figures · primary sources · re-checked quarterly
What Michigan employers actually risk
Most Michigan employers are missing at least one of these three things. Each one can cost you real money. Take the 60-second check below to see your own exposure — then see the full fine schedule.
Start here
What's your Michigan compliance exposure?
Six quick questions, scored entirely in your browser — nothing you enter is sent or stored. Your live Penalty Clock adds up your own 12-month exposure as you answer.
The 60-second check
What's your Michigan compliance exposure?
Answered entirely in your browser — nothing you enter is sent or stored.
How many employees do you have (all locations, full- and part-time)?
The fine schedule
Current verified penalties
Every number comes from the statute or the agency's own table, cited in place. Fines can apply per violation — and at each location.
Failing to provide Michigan earned sick time
8× hourly wage
Civil penalty of up to eight times the employee's normal hourly wage per violation — and employees have 3 years to file with LEO.
Michigan ESTA, MCL 408.961 et seq. (as amended eff. 2/21/2025)
Retaliating over earned sick time
$1,000
Administrative fine per retaliation violation, on top of remedies owed the employee.
Michigan ESTA, MCL 408.961 et seq.
Missing ESTA poster or employee notice
$100
Per separate notice or posting violation.
Michigan ESTA, MCL 408.961 et seq.
MIOSHA posting violation
$7,000
Up to $7,000 per violation — and assessment is mandatory, not discretionary, for posting violations.
MCL 408.1035(6) (as amended by 2024 PA 17, eff. 4/2/2025)
Missing EEOC "Know Your Rights" poster
$698
Per separate offense, for employers with 15+ employees.
EEOC notice-posting penalty (29 CFR 1601.30), eff. 9/30/2025
Willful failure to post the FMLA notice
$216
Per offense, for employers with 50+ employees.
DOL WHD civil money penalties (29 CFR 825.300), 2025 levels held for 2026
EPPA violations (polygraph notice law)
$26,262
Up to $26,262 per violation of the Employee Polygraph Protection Act, which includes its workplace-notice requirement.
29 CFR 801.42 (current)
Beyond the fines
The lawsuit exposure is usually bigger
Losing the harassment defense
Under Faragher/Ellerth, an employer's defense to many harassment claims rests on a written anti-harassment policy with a real reporting procedure. Without the document, the defense can be gone before the facts are argued.
Faragher v. Boca Raton; Burlington Indus. v. Ellerth (U.S. 1998)
The bundle solves this: A handbook with the reporting procedure built in.
Missing posters can extend deadlines to sue
Courts have allowed filing deadlines to be extended (equitable tolling) where the employer failed to display required rights postings — a missing poster can keep old claims alive.
Federal equitable-tolling doctrine in posting cases
The bundle solves this: A current, complete poster pack.
PTO payout exposure at separation
Under Michigan's wage law, earned fringe benefits follow the employer's written policy — and when the policy is silent, courts have treated earned vacation as wages owed at separation.
Mich. Payment of Wages and Fringe Benefits Act, Act 390 of 1978
The bundle solves this: A handbook that states the payout policy explicitly.
ELCRA applies from your first employee
Michigan's civil rights act covers employers at one employee and protects more than federal law: height, weight, marital status, age at any age, misdemeanor arrest record.
Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, Act 453 of 1976
The bundle solves this: A handbook with the full ELCRA protected-class list.
The costliest gaps. One subscription.
MiCompli covers the documents and tools that close them — handbook, posters, plan documents, HR letters, the Time Off Tracker, your annual notices packet with a by-name distribution log, a compliance calendar, and a one-click audit package. It does not replace your employment counsel — see exactly what's included.
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