Economy

Minimum Wage Increase Takes a Step Toward the Ballot

Ideastream Public Media | By Jo Ingles,

Published January 27, 2020 at 9:19 PM EST

coins stacked in front of the words minimum wage — Ohio voters could decide on a constitutional amendment to increase the minimum wage.

Ohioans are one step closer to voting on a proposed constitutional amendment that would raise the state’s minimum wage.

Attorney General Dave Yost certified the “Raise the Wage Ohio Amendment” because it had the necessary signatures and its summary language was deemed to be fair and truthful.

That means the group that wants to raise the wage can take it to the Ohio Ballot Board for approval. If and when that happens, the group can begin collecting petition signatures.

The proposed amendment seeks to increase the minimum wage to $9.60 an hour. It would increase every year, so that by 2025 it would be up to $13 per hour. After that point, the rate would automatically adjust for inflation every year.

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Jo Ingles

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.

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Karen Kasler

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.

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