The campaign to raise the minimum wage in Ohio plans to submit signatures by early September to be on the 2025 ballot, a dramatic strategy shift after One Fair Wage failed to meet a key deadline to be on ballot this year.
The campaign wants voters to pass a constitutional amendment to gradually raise the state minimum wage to $15 an hour by January 2026 and eliminate the tiered wage system for tipped workers.
One Fair Wage says it can collect more signatures, add them to those already in hand and then turn them all in to be on the ballot in November 2025. The Ohio Secretary of State said its legal team is reviewing whether that's the case.
The ballot proposal calls for the first wage hike to come in January 2025 and then a bump to $15 an hour in January 2026. But that won't happen because Ohio wouldn't vote until November 2025.
One Fair Wage pulled the plug on its November 2024 plan in Ohio after it failed to collect enough signatures − canvassers were in the field the day before the July 3 submission deadline − and bumped up against a downtown Columbus fireworks show that complicated logistics. The campaign said racism and intimidation directed at its non-white canvassers dampened signature collection in rural counties.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose was so frustrated with One Fair Wage that he called it a "duplicitous, disorganized goat rodeo of a campaign." The campaign president declined to comment on that characterization.
But from the outset, the petition signature campaign struggled with on-the-ground logistics. Just two months before the July 3 deadline, One Fair Wage had vacancies in key leadership positions such as field director, digital director and data coordinator.
One Fair Wage President Saru Jayaraman said there was a lack of good campaign management talent available in Ohio, contributing to the key vacancies.
"I will agree there wasn't a good pool or bench of managers to hire from," said Jayaraman, who is based in California. "Part of what the campaign is doing is developing a pipeline of folks that are newly engaging in the political process and an exciting part of having more time is we'll be able to develop a lot of them."
Eden McKissick-Hawley, a Democratic fundraiser and campaign organizer, pushed back on that narrative, saying she offered to work for One Fair Wage and forwarded resumes of other qualified management candidates. "It's frustrating because Ohio has some great organizers," she said. "It's so out of touch to suggest otherwise."
Evan Holt, who worked on One Fair Wage in its Cincinnati office, said the campaign was so disorganized that employees couldn't get basic supplies. "We were without printer ink for about three months."
One woman, Mariah Ross, was overseeing the minimum wage ballot issues in both Ohio and Arizona and assigned to communicate with Ohio reporters. Ohio and Arizona's submission deadlines were both July 3. Ross' automated e-mail response said she was experiencing a large volume of messages and would get back to people in three to four days.
"It was definitely too much for one person to do...it wouldn't have been if we had more managers to hire but as I said there was a lack of good management candidates," Jarayaman said.
When asked for documentation to back up the claim that racism and intimidation in rural counties hurt signature collection, Jarayaman said a county sheriff told her canvassers that they couldn't circulate petitions. One Fair Wage later declined to name the sheriff.
What's next for minimum wage issue in Ohio?
One Fair Wage needs a little more than 413,000 valid voter signatures to qualify for the statewide ballot. Jarayaman said her team has collected between 600,000 and 630,000 signatures so far and the campaign has a validation rate of 60% to 65%. That means One Fair Wage has between 360,000 and 409,500 valid signatures in hand.
The campaign also needs to meet a minimum threshold of signatures in at least 44 of 88 counties. One Fair Wage declined to disclose which smaller counties it'll focus on to hit the threshold.
Turning in signatures sooner rather than later will help with validity rates. As time passes, voters may move and change their voter registration information, which would render their signatures on petitions invalid.
Once petitions are submitted, county boards of elections will check the signatures against voter records. If One Fair Wage is short, it'll have 10 days to collect enough to hit 413,000.
If One Fair Wage makes the ballot, it'll face opposition from the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and Ohio Restaurant and Hospitality Alliance. The business groups say a $15 an hour minimum wage mandate will raise consumer prices and cause tipped workers to earn less money.
In 2006, voters approved a constitutional amendment that ties Ohio's minimum wage to inflation.
That means the2024 state minimum wagefor non-tipped workers is $10.45 an hour and for tipped workers it's $5.25 an hour. Full-time at $10.45 an hour works out to be $21,736 per year.
Employers with gross annual revenues of less than $385,000 can pay the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
Minimum wage campaign in other states
Despite missing the deadline for a 2024 vote in Ohio, Jarayaman said One Fair Wage is making good progress in multiple states. Here is a rundown:
- Arizona. Raise the Wage AZ submitted 354,000 signatures and is now waiting to see if 256,000 are deemed valid. The campaign will need a validation rate of at least 73%. If so, Arizona voters will decide in November if the minimum wage should be increased to $18 an hour by 2027.
- Massachusetts. Voters are expected to cast ballots in November on a plan to gradually raise the wage for tipped workers to be the same as non-tipped workers, $15 an hour.
- Michigan. Voters approved a 2018 ballot issue to raise the wage to $12 an hour but the Michigan legislature delayed the wage hike to 2030, prompting a lawsuit now pending before the state supreme court. If the court issues a favorable ruling, Michigan's minimum wage would go to $12 an hour and One Fair Wage would work with state lawmakers to institute a $15 an hour wage in the near future.
Jarayaman said One Fair Wage is also working on raising wages via legislation in Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New York and Rhode Island.
Laura Bischoff is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
