by JD Davidson
If the push to boost Ohio’s minimum wage doesn’t make it to the November ballot, there’s a contingency plan in the state Senate.
This plan, however, increases more slowly and ultimately keeps the tipped wage at half the non-tipped wage. If the proposed constitutional amendment comes to a vote and is passed, tipped and non-tipped wages will eventually become equal.
Sen. Louis Blessing III, R-Colerain Township, recently introduced legislation that would gradually raise the minimum wage until it reaches $15 an hour by 2028. It would boost the non-tipped wage by half.
“I fully understand what reformers are trying to do and why they are trying to do it: real wages have fallen significantly due to inflation, especially asset inflation in the real estate world, because housing costs are certainly the highest costs for low- and middle-income families” – Blessing ( pictured above) told the House Ways and Means Committee.
The ballot initiative currently trying to get on the November ballot would boost the non-tipped minimum wage to $15 by 2026 and bring the tipped wage in line with the non-tipped wage by 2029.
Senate Bill No. 256 will raise both the time-honored wage and the tipped wage over the next four years, starting in 2025. Currently, the basic minimum wage is $10.45 an hour and increases annually based on the Consumer Price Index.
Effective January 1, it increased to $10.45 for non-tipped workers and to $5.25 per hour for tipped workers for businesses with annual gross revenue of more than $385,000. Nearly 400,000 Ohio workers were expected to benefit from this boost.
A year ago, the minimum wage was $10.10 for non-tipped workers and $5.05 for tipped workers.
Blessing’s plan would raise the wage to $12 in 2025, $13 in 2026, $14 in 2027 and $15 in 2028.
In 2029, wage adjustments will be linked to the Consumer Price Index.
Blessing’s bill would also modify the state’s earned income tax credit for lower-income taxpayers and offer a refundable credit option.
That’s not good enough for some supporters of the proposed constitutional amendment, who say the amendment would benefit more Ohioans and provide constitutional protections.
“Ohio’s minimum wage deserves constitutional protection,” Shields said. “Without it, the same state legislators who tried to move the bar on passing a citizen initiative last summer would have had the power to block or slow passage of the $15 bill or take other measures that favor business lobbies over protecting working Ohioans,” Policy Matters, an Ohio economist , Michael Shields, said. “Half a million Ohioans work for less than $15 an hour, and another half a million earn slightly more.
“These workers need a raise now. SB 256 would not only take an additional two years to reach workers; would be worth about 60 cents less at a target inflation rate of 2%, or a whole dollar less if current inflation rates continued – and would never make up for it.”
A year after language was approved for a constitutional amendment to raise Ohio’s minimum wage, organizers are still collecting signatures to put the issue on the ballot.
The Raise the Wage Ohio Coalition received approval for the proposed amendment almost a year ago from the Ohio Board of Elections and has been collecting signatures ever since.
The group has until July 23 to collect the required 442,958 signatures.
The proposed amendment will raise the minimum wage starting January 1. It would then boost for the next three years until it reaches $15 an hour on January 1, 2028. Subsequent minimum wage increases would be tied to an inflation rate based on the consumer price index.
More than year agoThe Ohio Chamber of Commerce said it opposes a constitutional amendment to raise the minimum wage.
“The Ohio Chamber of Commerce believes that free market forces ensure adequate wages for workers. Ohio already has a minimum wage indexed to inflation. This voting initiative will result in more automation, fewer jobs, and winners and losers; it punishes some of the people it purports to help,” said Chamber CEO Steve Stivers.
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Ohio native J.D. Davidson is a veteran journalist with more than 30 years of experience at newspapers in Ohio, Georgia, Alabama and Texas. He served as a reporter, editor, editor-in-chief and publisher. Davidson is the magazine’s regional editor Central Square.
