COLUMBUS – Low-wage workers in Columbus and across Ohio will join in a “national day of action” Tuesday, walking off their jobs as part of the “Fight for $15” campaign in favor of a higher federal minimum wage.
Ohio’s minimum wage of $8.10 cents an hour is higher than the federal wage, but advocates of low-wage employees say it leaves many families scraping to get by.
“There are many low-wage workers that not only work one 40-hour-a-week job, but then, go and work another part-time job,” Deb Kline, director of Cleveland Jobs with Justice said. ”When somebody is forced to work two and three jobs in order to make ends meet, it’s a sad situation in our country when that happens.”
Protests are planned at more than 270 locations nationwide, in what some say could be the largest strike ever to hit the fast-food industry. Workers from other traditionally low-wage fields, including childcare, home-care, and farming, also plan to strike.
Opponents of raising the wage say it would hurt businesses and result in job loss.
Kline believes the push for a higher wage will pick up steam heading into the presidential election year because the estimated 64 million Americans who are paid less than $15 an hour could make up a powerful voting bloc.
Ohio’s Democratic U.S. Senator, Sherrod Brown, is a cosponsor of the federal “Pay Workers a Living Wage Act,” which would phase in a $15 minimum wage by 2020 over five gradual raises.
The Ohio Ballot Board on Oct. 30 approved the ballot initiative known as “The Ohio Fair Wage Amendment,” a 2016 constitutional amendment that would increase the wage to $10 an hour in 2017 and grant 50-cents-an-hour raises annually until the base wage reaches $12 an hour in 2021.