COLUMBUS, Ohio — While concerns grow over the rising cost of living sweeping the nation, one committee in Ohio is focused on helping workers across the state by pushing to raise the minimum wage.
Raise the Wage Ohio Coalition launched its effort to collect signatures for the ballot measure that would raise the minimum wage in Ohio to $15 by 2026.
"Ohioans are crying out, they can't survive with these very low wages," said Maricela Gutierrez, the co-organizing director of One Fair Wage. "It's so important right now because we're hearing from workers, we're hearing from low-wage folks who are really struggling right now. $10.10 as a minimum wage is one of the lowest in the nation."
The Raise the Wage Committee is calling to put a minimum wage increase on the ballot for the November 2024 election. The goal is to increase the state’s minimum wage from $10.10 to $12.75 an hour by January 2025, and $15 an hour by 2026.
The initiative includes eliminating the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers, which is now sitting at $5.05.
"We're going to be collecting over 650,000 signatures to get it on the ballot in November,” Gutierrez said.
Resident Benjamin Favrik said his deepest desire is to go to college but he says the price of gas, insurance and food alone keeps him stuck.
"Working on a minimum wage, even if I'm being partially supported by my parents, I still can't get any savings,” Favrik said.
Researcher Mike Shields from Policy Matters Ohio said the state's minimum wage has not kept up with the cost of living.
"One thing that we know is that passing a living minimum wage, something like 15 dollars an hour, also makes our labor market much more fair,” says Shields.
A 2019 Policy Matters Ohio report found that increasing Ohio’s minimum wage to $15 would give two million workers an additional $4 million a year, but opponents say raising the minimum wage could result in an increased cost to pay for the higher salaries and wages.
Enough signatures must be collected and verified at least 65 days prior to the election in order to get it on the ballot.