The Ohioans For a Fair Minimum Wage coalition has submitted enough signatures to put a proposal to raise the minimum wage on the ballot, but the amendment could leave some teenagers and college-aged employees out of a job.
The proposed amendment, Issue 2, would raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.85 an hour. If passed, the amendment would mark the first increase in the wage since 1996, said Keary McCarthy, a spokesman for Ohioans For a Fair Minimum Wage.
The minimum wage has remained the same for the past 10 years
but the cost of living has changed dramatically McCarthy said. The idea is that the cost of living and the minimum wage should be parallel with each other.
To achieve this goal, the proposed amendment would require a new minimum wage that accounts for the inflationary increases that have occurred over the past 10 years. The amendment also requires a hike in the state's hourly minimum each year the cost of living rises.
Ohio University economics professor Dr. Douglas Adie said he is concerned because the affected workers would primarily be teens, minorities and people with disabilities, and employers will not want to pay them a higher minimum wage.
These people will be out of work. I don't think that's a very good thing to do he said.
The main opponent of Issue 2, the Ohioans to Protect Personal Privacy campaign, argues that the amendment's requirement for employers to keep records available for any third party to see would compromise employees' security. The records would include the employee's name, address, pay rate and other privacy-related information, said John McGough, campaign manager for the Ohioans to Protect Personal Privacy.
The problem is that even if you are for a raise in the minimum wage
with the language of this law
you wouldn't be passing a law that would just be raising the minimum wage
McGough said. Frankly
they haven't told Ohioans what this is actually about.
However, McCarthy argued that an increase in workers' wages would revive Ohio's struggling economy and benefit about 750,000 Ohio families. He also said the amendment would not jeopardize privacy.
What (Ohioans to Protect Personal Privacy) are trying to do is blatantly political
he said. I don't think they can defend the current minimum wage; I think they are just trying to create an angle.
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