$15 minimum wage would benefit 1 million working Ohioans
Posted April 23, 2024 in Press Releases
Ballot measure would eliminate carveouts that hold pay down for tipped workers, disabled workers, youth
Nearly 1 million working Ohioans would benefit from a ballot measure that could appear before Ohio voters this November, according to a report released today by Policy Matters Ohio.
“From the food processing workers who help us get dinner on the table to the childcare workers who keep our kids safe while we’re at work, Ohioans depend on some of the lowest-paid workers in the state,” said Policy Matters Ohio economist and report author, Michael Shields. “Everyone who works deserves a wage that honors the value of their work and meets the cost of living, but for too long corporations have held wages down even as Ohio workers became more productive than ever before. Raising Ohio’s minimum wage to $15 per hour is a major step toward restoring justice to our job market.”
Low-paid workers in Ohio are paid less than their grandparents were half a century ago: The federal minimum wage at its 1968 peak was worth more than $14 per hour in today’s dollars. Now an Ohioan with a family of three who works full time at minimum wage is paid $21,736 a year: $4,084 below the poverty level.
The ballot measure would raise the Ohio minimum wage to $15 per hour in two steps by 2026, and phase out the sub-minimum wage employers can pay tipped workers by 2029. The measure would end separate treatment for tipped workers, youth, and workers with a disability. Under current Ohio law, employers of tipped workers can claim a portion of their wages as a so-called “tip credit” and reduce the wage they receive to as little as half the minimum wage. If the measure passes, tipped workers will be paid the full minimum wage with tips on top.
Among the report’s key findings are:
- Raising Ohio’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2026 will benefit nearly 1 million working Ohioans: 19% of the Ohio workforce. This includes 470,000 who are currently paid less than $15 who will receive a direct benefit, and 500,000 currently paid up to $17.25, who will get a raise as employers adjust pay scales.
- Raising the minimum wage will generate $2 billion in new annual earnings by 2026.
- The average affected worker will take home an additional $2,128 each year. That’s $3,400 for the lowest-paid Ohioans who will see a direct increase, and $1,911 for those already paid a little more.
- Three in five of the people whose pay will go up are women. Raising the wage will reduce gender pay inequity.
- White workers make up the largest share of people who will benefit (70%). But for reasons related to structural racism, Black and Latine workers are more often pushed into low-paid jobs, so disproportionately large shares of those groups will benefit (30% of each). The same is true for workers grouped under “other races”: 33% of them will get a raise. Out of all white workers, 17% will get a raise; out of all Asian Ohioans workers, 16%.
- Most affected workers are adults aged 20+ (80%) who have already finished high school (80%). More parents will benefit from the ballot measure than teens.
“No matter their race, gender, age or where they work, all working people deserve to be paid a livable wage,” said Shields.
Download minwagereportapril2024pr.pdf