Group makes push to increase Ohio's minimum wage

By Marc Kovac | October 16, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

COLUMBUS

A group has submitted initial petition language to the attorney general’s office as part of an effort to increase Ohio’s minimum wage.

Stand Up Ohio wants the latter to be increased to $10 per hour as of Jan. 1, 2017, then upped 50 cents annually through 2021, when it would reach $12.

After that, the rate would be adjusted for inflation.

Additionally, the proposed Ohio Fair Wage Amendment calls for the phase-out of the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers in the state, setting the initial rate at $6 per hour and increasing it annually thereafter until it matches the full minimum wage.

The provisions are included in a proposed constitutional amendment backers hope to place on the ballot next year.

“We can no longer sit by and watch more and more people slip into poverty in Ohio,” Kirk Noden, a Kent resident and one of the petitioners for the amendment, said in a released statement.

“People deserve a chance to have an up-or-down vote on raising the minimum wage.”

Stand Up Ohio, which includes representation from union, civil rights and environmental groups, submitted nearly 3,400 initial signatures and the language for its amendment to Attorney General Mike DeWine earlier this week.

Pending review and approval by DeWine and, afterward, the state Ballot Board, the group could begin collecting the 300,000-plus signatures required to qualify for the ballot.

Ohio voters last approved a minimum-wage increase in 2006, upping it to $6.85 from $5.15, with annual increases to account for inflation.

Ohio’s current rate for employers with annual gross receipts of more than $297,000 is $8.10 per hour and $4.05 per hour for tipped employees.

Smaller companies, and teen workers age 14 or 15, have minimum wages of $7.25 per hour, the same as the current federal rate.