COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Democratic lawmakers have introduced a new bill aimed at raising the state's minimum wage to $15 per hour, but this time it's taking a different approach.
Senate Bill 146, introduced by Senators Kent Smith, D-Euclid and Hearcel Craig, D-Columbus, would steadily raise the state's minimum wage by $1 year-over-year until the wage reaches $15, which the bill states would happen in 2027.
Ohio's current minimum wage is $10.10 per hour for non-tipped workers and just $5.05 for tipped employees. Under current Ohio law, tipped employees can earn half what non-tipped employees do, but SB-146 would change that. The bill's language would eliminate the difference between tipped and non-tipped employees' wages, making the state's minimum wage one ubiquitous amount.
According to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, one Ohioan without any children needs to make $15.33 per hour to support themselves. With just one child under their roof, that same person needs to make $33.89 per hour. With two children living with a single parent, MIT's Living Wage Calculator puts the Ohio minimum wage below the poverty line.
"Minimum wage still does not provide a live-able wage," Smith told the Ohio Capital Journal. "The biggest challenge facing Ohio, I think, is poverty and we need to go to war against poverty, not the poor. We need to be doing more for those who have the least."
Although the federal minimum wage remains at $7.25, many states throughout the US have opted to raise their minimum wages to $15 or higher in recent years. Multiple efforts to make that change in Ohio have fallen short, however. Similar legislation has been introduced in the last five Ohio General Assemblies — many by Smith and Craig — but none have ever gone past committee.
Smith told the Ohio Capital Journal SB-146 is about playing the long game this time.
"I'm trying to grow support for the notion that the minimum wage is still too low and that the tipped worker penalty is not good for anyone," said Smith. "One of the ways that I can grow public support for all of those is to introduce some legislation."
A separate effort to raise the minimum wage in Ohio, led by a group called Raise the Wage Ohio, is seeking to get a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot for voters to decide on. Although Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost initially rejected the group's amendment citing unclear language in October, the Ohio Ballot Board ultimately voted to certify the group's petition, clearing the way for the effort to begin gathering signatures.
Raise the Wage Ohio proposes a constitutional amendment to increase the minimum wage in the state to $12.75 an hour beginning Jan. 1, 2025, and to $15 an hour beginning Jan. 1, 2026. After that, previously approved increases indexed to inflation would continue at the higher rate.
That amendment would repeal current language that allows employers to pay tipped employees less than, but not less than half, of the minimum wage. Instead, it would allow employers to pay $4 less than the minimum beginning Jan. 1, 2025, $3 less the following year, and so on until tipped employees receive the minimum wage as their base pay beginning Jan. 1, 2029. They could earn tips in addition, under this amendment.
