COLUMBUS, Ohio – One of the Democratic candidates for Mayor of Columbus thinks the city needs a raise.
James Ragland is proposing an increase in the minimum wage in the city to what he calls a “living wage” of $12.50 per hour, he told Sunny 95 during an interview for “Perspective.”
“We’ve already been floating that number to some of our business leaders and they have not balked at that,” Ragland said.
Ragland said asking Columbus City Council to raise the minimum wage will be one of the first tasks he will try to accomplish if elected in November.
Ragland, who is a veteran community activist and development director at Christo Rey High School, and five other candidates are on the ballot for the May 5 primary election. The top two vote-getters will advance to the general election.
The $12.50 figure was based economic factors that included the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment, food and utilities, Ragland said.
The 4.3 percent unemployment rate in Columbus in February is well below the statewide rate of 5.6 percent and the national rate of 5.5 percent.
The fall in jobless rates in the U.S. has prompted discussion of raising the federal minimum wage. Some large employers, notable Walmart and McDonald’s, have announced recently their plans to increase the base hourly wages for some of their workers.
Walmart, the nation’s largest employer raised the wages for 14,769 Ohio workers to $12.96 an hour, approximately $1.75 above the federal minimum wage and 90 cents higher than the state’s minimum wage, according to a news release from the retailer’s corporate headquarters.