Columbus, Ohio – The advocacy group One Fair Wage keeps gathering signatures in another attempt to raise Ohio’s minimum wage to $15 an hour in order to land a ballot position for November 2025. This follows a previous setback in which a lack of signatures caused the group to miss the November ballot date for this year.
Saru Jayaraman, the president of One Fair Wage, expressed confidence in the ongoing campaign.
“The plan was not to kill it all together,” Jayaraman said. as reported by Ohio Capital Journal.“… We feel extraordinarily confident that once we’re on the ballot, we’ll win.” The group is aiming to collect over 600,000 signatures by the end of summer and is ensuring they have representation from at least 44 counties, meeting the state’s requirement for ballot initiatives.
Comparatively with the non-tipped minimum wage of $10.45, the proposed hike sees Ohio’s minimum wage climb to $15 per hour by 2026 for non-tipped workers, therefore eliminating the state’s tipped wage system, which now sets salaries at $5.25 plus tips. Still at $7.25 per hour, the federal minimum wage is unchanged.
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Policy Matters Ohio’s Michael Shields and other economic experts underline the possible advantages of the raise. Boosting the pay to $15 would help around one million Ohioans, or about one-fifth of the state’s workforce, stated Shields.
“It’s never going to have the ability to push people up,” Shields said. “Am I doing any better than I was last year? No, accounting for inflation I’m doing exactly the same as I was last year. … It’s a safeguard against loss of buying power,” Shields added.
The Ohio Restaurant & Hospitality Alliance in particular has strongly objected to the project, though. The Alliance’s president and CEO, John Barker, attacked the initiative, claiming it served the needs of outside organizations rather than Ohioans’. With a median income for tipped workers of $27 an hour, he pointed to a poll showing that 93% of waiters and bartender preferences the existing system with a base pay plus tips.
Reacting to these grassroots efforts, State Sen. Bill Blessing proposed Senate Bill 256 earlier this year, suggesting an incremental increase of the minimum wage for non-tipped workers to $15 by 2028, with a new rate for tipped workers at $7.50.
The campaign for a $15 minimum wage fits a larger national movement started in New York in 2012. Reflecting a major change toward guaranteeing salaries at least nominally meet the cost of living in increasingly costly urban surroundings, the “Fight for 15” has become a rallying cry throughout many states.
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As One Fair Wage gears up for their continued campaign in Ohio, they also have active campaigns and legislative efforts in other states, including Massachusetts, Arizona, Illinois, and Maryland. Reflecting both a growing national trend and the pressing economic needs of low-income workers, the organization hopes Ohio will join the ranks of states that have embraced a higher minimum wage requirement by combining optimism with strategic strategy.
