Ohio Republicans introduce bill to stop effort to increase minimum wage to $15

The Ohio Restaurant and Hospitality Alliance isn’t on board with the amendment, they told us in January.

“They don’t want to see the tip wage eliminated. It’s so critical to their business,” said John Barker, the president and CEO, said.

Barker said restaurants are still trying to stay afloat following the pandemic and inflation. If the wages are raised, some businesses will have no choice but to increase menu costs to manage.

“The repercussions of this are going to be really felt by the consumer, and they’re nervous about that…because they try to provide good value to their customers right now,” Barker added.

Timing

Blessing has support in the Senate, he said. Although he is encouraged that Blessing cares about this issue, Shields said the amendment is the better option. He argued the people need to take this issue into their own hands — through the Constitution — because lawmakers can’t change it. Legislators can always change a bill if they want to.

“[They can] go in and take away wage protections that Ohio voters want and have supported,” Shields said.

The timing is also “telling,” he added.

“The reality is, the state legislature has the opportunity to pass a higher minimum wage at any time — they have not taken it,” he said. “There is a measure introduced in the state legislature every legislative session to raise the minimum wage.”

State Sen. Kent Smith (D-Euclid) introduced said bill in 2023. Although he respects Blessing for not lying about the intention of the bill, he said if the Republicans didn’t have “sketchy motives,” they would have been cosponsoring his legislation.

“They’re scared about losing another ballot initiative,” Smith said.

The Ohio GOP, as a whole, was 0-3 on succeeding at the polls in 2023. Of course, plenty of Republicans strayed from the masses on each of the issues — but it was a major year of loss for them. They lost on changing majority rule, abortion access and marijuana legalization.

Smith said he doesn’t trust his party not to change the legislation say it were to pass.

Fair argument, Blessing responded.

“They’re right, that could happen,” the Republican said. “I think something like this will pass the ballot and if the General Assembly found a way to do this legislatively and avoid that, recognizing where Ohioans typically stand on these things, I don’t think that they would repeal it,” he said.

But Ohioans have recent evidence that argument is wishful thinking, House Democrats have told me.

The Senate dramatically altered the recreational marijuana statute after voters passed it, enough so that the House refuses to touch the legislation because it goes “against the will of the people.”

“What we’re talking about is showing leadership and passing something that will meet the voters where they’re at or as close to that as we can surmise,” Blessing said. “And fending off a potential ballot initiative in the process.”

What else is in S.B. 256

Blessing added a refundable earned income tax credit (EITC), modeling it off of a model from Oregon, a deeply blue state.

For everyone, there would be a refundable EITC of 9%, but if you have a child under three years old, you would be eligible for 12% of the credit.

However, Ohio currently has a 30% non-refundable EITC, so the bill gives the option of whichever is better for the taxpayer.

“They can elect to take that because there are some people on the higher end of the EITC curve that the non-refundable may actually work better for them,” Blessing explained.

What’s next?

“Could passing the bill even happen this quickly?” with the election six months away, he was asked.

“I’m not gonna mince words, it would be very difficult to get something like this through,” Blessing responded, adding that the House is currently in “disarray.”

The chamber leaders loathe each other, and bipartisan bills aren’t even getting passed.

Hopefully, this will start some dialogue, though, he said.

Both Haverlick and Cabrera, despite making comments about the high tips, said they will vote to support the amendment in Nov. if it gets on.

“I think we all deserve to be up there right now,” Cabrera said.

Raise the Wage needs about 415,000 valid signatures by July. Ross said they have already surpassed 400,000 and still have two months to get plenty more.

To learn more about the proposal, click or tap here.