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Effort to raise Ohio's minimum wage can start collecting signatures for 2024 ballot [1]

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Date: 2023-04-17

This article has been updated to correct the date that tipped employees would receive full minimum wage.

Advocates hoping to raise Ohio's minimum wage to $15 an hour got the green light Monday to start collecting signatures for the November 2024 ballot.

The five-member Ohio Ballot Board approved Raise the Wage Ohio's measure as one issue rather than multiple ones. The procedural step allows proponents to start collecting the 413,446 valid signatures that the group would need to make the ballot.

Under the proposed constitutional amendment, the state minimum wage would increase to $12.75 an hour starting Jan. 1, 2025 and $15 an hour on Jan. 1, 2026. After that, increases would be indexed to inflation. Tipped employees, who currently receive a lower rate, would receive full minimum wage by Jan. 1, 2029.

The amendment would also repeal provisions that allow minors and people with mental or physical disabilities to be paid less than minimum wage.

Proponents of the measure say it's needed to help Ohio's lower-income employees. Opponents say it would cripple an already struggling labor market.

"The proposed minimum wage amendment to the Ohio Constitution is not only ill-advised and economically detrimental," Ohio Chamber of Commerce CEO Steve Stivers said in a statement. "It would also be next to impossible to correct once the unintended consequences transpire.”

By the end of 2023, six states will have minimum wages at or above $15. They include California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon and Washington, according to a report from the National Employment Law Project.

Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Akron Beacon Journal, Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus Dispatch and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

Get more political analysis by listening to the Ohio Politics Explained podcast

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[1] Url: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2023/04/17/issue-to-raise-minimum-wage-in-ohio-step-closer-to-2024-ballot/70122483007/

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