Campaign to raise Ohio minimum wage to $15/hour reaches next step with board’s approval

The state of Ohio is closer to raising its minimum wage to $15 an hour as the Ohio Ballot Board cleared a proposal for the next step Monday.

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A proposal by Raise the Wage Ohio was submitted to the Ohio Ballot Board to certify its language. As the board reviewed and approved the language, it cleared the campaign to begin gathering signatures for the next phase of bringing a proposal to a ballot, AP News reported.

The campaign must collect 413,446 valid signatures to make the November 2024 ballot.

The proposal sought to impose a constitutional amendment to increase the minimum wage in the state to $12.75 an hour beginning January 1, 2025. The minimum wage would later increase to $15 an hour beginning January 1, 2026. After that, previously approved increases indexed to inflation would continue at the higher rate, AP News stated.

The amendment would also repeal the current language that allowed employers to pay tipped employees less than, but not less than half, of minimum wage.

Instead, it would allow employers to pay $4 less than minimum wage beginning January 1, 2025, which would later decrease to $3 the following year. The amount would decrease a dollar each year until tipped employees would receive the same minimum wage that non-tipped employees received, starting January 1, 2029.

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