OEA votes to support $13 minimum wage ballot issue

[February 25, 2020] Members of the Ohio Education Association (OEA) Board of Directors voted unanimously to support a ballot proposal that would raise Ohio’s minimum wage to $13 by 2025, an increase that would benefit more than 1.4 million workers.

“An Ohioan working full time for minimum wage now earns just $18,000 a year—an income that falls $3,600 short of the poverty level and does not cover even the most basic needs,” said OEA President Scott DiMauro.

“With minimum wage so low, too many parents can’t make ends meet, and too many students are forced to make do without the very basics,” DiMauro said. “When our students have economic stability at home, they can flourish at school and fulfill their full promise to become leaders, innovators, and caring members of our community.”

The proposal would raise Ohio’s minimum wage, currently $8.70 an hour for non-tipped employees, to $9.60 an hour on January 1, 2021. It would then increase it each year until stopping at $13 an hour in 2025.

The OEA is a member of Ohioans for Raising the Wage, a coalition of community, faith and labor organizations backing the ballot issue. Coalition members are working to collect roughly 443,000 valid voter signatures from 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties by July 1 so the measure can appear on the November 2020 ballot.

The Ohio Education Association represents 122,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals in Ohio’s public schools, colleges and universities.