Laws do not arrive with a notification. Most of these took effect on 1 January, and the first many people knew of them was a different number on a payslip.
The ones that change your money
The minimum wage went to $13.73, up from $12.48, on the path the legislature set towards $15 in 2027. If you are paid at or near the floor, that is the single largest item on this page.
Tips and overtime became deductible. A state deduction now applies to tipped income and to overtime pay. Two things worth knowing: it is a deduction, not an exemption, and it is temporary by design — tax years 2026 through 2028. If you wait tables or regularly work past forty hours, it is worth asking whoever does your return about it before 2029.
Unemployment benefit rose to $530 a week, up from $446 for new claims, with more for dependants.
Cannabis got a 24 per cent wholesale tax, charged on transfers to retailers, on top of the existing 10 per cent retail excise and ordinary sales tax. It is projected to raise about $420 million, earmarked for roads. Wholesale taxes do not stay wholesale.
The one you have already benefited from without noticing
Ticket bots are banned. Public Act 49 — nicknamed the Taylor Swift law — outlaws bots and other prohibited means of acquiring event tickets. Whether it works is a separate question from whether it exists. It exists.
The quiet ones
Earmarks must be published. Public Acts 32 and 33 require proposed enhancement grants to be posted online, naming the legislator proposing them and the recipient. This is the least discussed item here and arguably the most useful: it turns a category of spending that was previously a matter of rumour into a matter of record.
Schools may teach firearm safety. Public Act 48 permits an elective course. Permits, not requires — the decision sits with each district.
Child care centers may fit security locks. Public Act 60 clears the way for door locks used during a security incident.
What to do with this
Two are worth acting on rather than just knowing. If you earn tips or overtime, the deduction has a deadline attached. And if you have ever wondered where a particular pot of state money came from, the earmark register is now something you can actually go and read.