Ohio Voters Get a Chance to Raise the Minimum Wage

by Mike Hall, Sep 7, 2006

It’s now official: The ballot initiative to raise Ohio’s minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.85 has earned a spot on the November ballot.

The Ohio secretary of state yesterday certified signatures submitted last month by Ohioans for A Fair Minimum Wage, a union and community coalition. The group, co-chaired by the Ohio AFL-CIO, collected more than 765,000 signatures—more than twice the number needed to put the wage issue on the ballot and into the state constitution if voters approve.

The AFL-CIO’s America Needs a Raise campaign has mobilized activists in more than 20 states to raise the minimum wage through ballot initiatives or legislation. Along with Ohio, voters in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana and Nevada will have a chance to do what Congress hasn’t done in nearly a decade: raise the minimum wage. Congressional lawmakers have raised their own pay nine times since last voting to increase the federal minimum wage.

Says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney:

With stagnant or falling wages, rising debt, and spiraling health and energy costs destroying our nation’s middle class, it’s outrageous that the Republican leadership in Congress continues to play games with the minimum wage at the expense of hard-working Americans. In the face of continued inaction in Congress, it’s no wonder Ohio working families have taken matters into their own hands.

Republicans have played games with minimum wage workers over the years. In its latest move in August, the GOP-led Congress sought to link a minimum wage increase with a $53 billion estate tax cut for millionaires that would give some 8,200 wealthy families an average of $1.4 million. The legislation also would have cut the pay of millions of workers who earn tips. That poison-pill package was defeated Aug. 3.

Now there is speculation on Capitol Hill that Republican leaders may try to revive the estate tax cut/minimum wage package before adjourning for the fall election campaigns. We’ll keep you posted.

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