Democrats Push for $15 Minimum Wage in Ohio by 2027

 

Ohio Democratic lawmakers have once again introduced a bill that would raise the state’s minimum wage. 

 

Ohio Senators Kent Smith, D-Euclid, and Hearcel Craig, D-Columbus, recently introduced Senate Bill 146, which would gradually raise the state’s minimum wage one dollar each year until it was up to $15. 

 

Under the bill, minimum wage would increase to $12 an hour starting in 2024; $13 starting in 2025; $14 starting 2026; and $15 in 2027. 

 

“Minimum wage still does not provide a live-able wage,” Smith said.

 

Ohio’s current minimum wage is $10.10 per hour for non-tipped workers. By law, tipped employees earn half the state’s minimum wage — $5.05 per hour plus tips. 

 

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Minimum Wage Now $10.45 in Ohio

 

The minimum wage for Ohio’s larger employers increased on Monday from $10.10 to $10.45 an hour for non-tipped employees, the Ohio Department of Commerce announced Wednesday. Tipped employees of larger companies will see an increase from $5.05 an hour to $5.25.

 

The increases are the consequence of a constitutional amendment passed by Ohio voters in 2006 that ties minimum wages to the Consumer Price Index — the federal government’s index of inflation. It “increased by 3.7 % over the 12-month period from Sept. 1, 2022, to Aug. 31, 2023,” the Department of Commerce said in a statement.

 

It doesn’t seem likely, however, that the wage increase is adequate for low-income Ohioans.

 

For starters, it doesn’t apply to employees of companies with less than $385,000 in annual gross receipts. Those employees will continue to be guaranteed the $7.25 federal hourly wage.

 

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https://columbusunderground.com/minimum-wage-now-10-45-in-ohio-ocj1/

 

Ohioans May Vote on a $15 Hourly Minimum Wage in November

 

Ohioans could have a chance vote to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026. 

 

Raise the Wage Ohio is collecting signatures to put a proposed constitutional amendment on this year’s ballot that would raise the minimum wage to $12.75 an hour starting Jan. 1, 2025, and then it would go up to $15 an hour starting on Jan. 1, 2026. It would also get rid of Ohio’s tipped wage. 

 

Ohio’s current minimum wage is $10.45 an hour for non-tipped employees and $5.25 for tipped employees. 

 

“We’re going to be raising wages for 1.4 million Ohioans immediately,” said Mariah Ross, the executive director of One Fair Wage. “Minimum wage will give everyone a bump. It will make it a livable wage.”

 

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Survey: Ohio Restaurant Workers Don’t Want Minimum Wage Increased

 

A new survey shows 93% of Ohio servers and bartenders want to keep the current tipping system with a base wage and tips.

 

The Ohio Restaurant & Hospitality Alliance released the results of the survey last week, which received 990 responses from tipped employees working at full-service restaurants across Ohio. The online survey was conducted in April by national research and consulting firm CorCom Inc. and had a 3% margin of error. 

 

The survey comes as Raise the Wage Ohio is collecting signatures to put a proposed constitutional amendment on Ohio’s ballot that would raise the minimum wage to $12.75 an hour starting Jan. 1, 2025 and would eliminate Ohio’s tipped wage. Minimum wage would go up to $15 an hour starting on Jan. 1, 2026. Raise the Wage is part of a national campaign run by One Fair Wage.

 

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Study: $15 Minimum Wage Could Save 4,000 Lives in Ohio

 

There may be some drawbacks, but increasing Ohio’s minimum wage to $15 an hour would save 4,000 lives and create a $25 billion benefit to the state economy by 2036, according to a study released last month by Scioto Analysis.

 

A group proposing to increase the minimum wage from the current $10.45 an hour to $12.45 and then to $15 did not submit petitions last week for the November ballot, and is now looking to bring the proposal to voters in 2025. The cost-benefit analysis by Scioto found that such an increase would reduce suicides, homicides, infant mortality and low-birthweight babies — phenomena that are associated with economic stress.

 

The analysis identified two downsides to the proposed increase in Ohio. 

 

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Signatures Being Collected to Get $15 Minimum Wage on 2025 Ohio Ballot

 

Minimum wage won’t be on Ohio’s ballot this year, but it could be on next year’s. 

 

After a day of mixed messaging last week, One Fair Wage ultimately failed to submit the necessary signatures to the Ohio Secretary of State to get their initiative on the November ballot. 

 

But One Fair Wage is continuing to collect signatures across Ohio and plans to submit more than 600,000 signatures by the end of summer to be on the November 2025 ballot, said One Fair Wage President Saru Jayaraman. 

 

They are working to make sure they have signatures from 44 counties, which is part of the requirement to be on the ballot, she said. 

 

“The plan was not to kill it all together,” Jayaraman said. “… We feel extraordinarily confident that once we’re on the ballot, we’ll win.”

 

She said even though they technically had the required amount of signatures needed to get on the ballot last week, they wanted to give themselves “more of a cushion.”

 

If One Fair Wage gets on Ohio’s ballot next year, their timeline of bumping minimum wage up to $15 an hour in 2026 would remain the same, she said. Their proposal would also get rid of Ohio’s tipped wage.

 

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Survey: Economists Support $15 Minimum Wage in Ohio

 

On proposals to raise Ohio’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, most economists agree that it would benefit low-income Ohioans, and most say the increase would not lead to a significant increase in unemployment, according to a recent survey.

 

A group proposing to increase the minimum wage from the current $10.45 an hour to $12.45 and then to $15 held back this year from trying to get the measure on the November ballot. But it is looking to put the proposal to voters in 2025.

 

If it’s successful, it would “significantly improve the welfare of low-income people in Ohio,” said 11 economists surveyed on the matter by Scioto Analysis. Five others disagreed with that assertion, and three said they were uncertain.

 

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The Push for a $15 Minimum Wage in Ohio Continues

 

Ohio lawmakers are once again trying to increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour. 

 

State Reps. Dontavius Jarrells, D-Columbus, and Ismail Mohamed, D-Columbus, recently introduced House Bill 34, which would increase the minimum wage by a dollar per hour each year for workers until reaching $15 per hour in 2030. The bill is in the Ohio House Labor and Commerce Committee. 

 

Ohio’s minimum wage went up to $10.70 per hour for non-tipped employees on Jan. 1. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. 

 

“At $10.45 per hour, Ohio’s minimum wage is not enough for working families to stay afloat,” Jarrells said in a statement. “No one should have to work multiple jobs just to survive. Raising wages means strengthening families, stabilizing communities, and growing our economy.”

 

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