The US restaurant industry is on the cusp of historic change. After years of organizing and building power to raise wages and end subminimum tip-based wages, restaurant and service workers and “high road” restaurant owners in many states still work in an industry that offers a minimum wage of $2.13 an hour—a direct legacy of slavery. But since the COVID-19 pandemic, over one million workers have left the industry, resulting in thousands of restaurants raising wages to recruit staff.
In Ohio, advocates have filed a petition to raise the state minimum wage to $15 an hour and end subminimum wages for tipped workers, workers with disabilities, and youth. Tipped workers in Ohio currently earn $5.05. Nearly a million Ohio workers would receive a raise through this ballot measure.
The partners include a range of organizations, including SEIU District 1199, the Ohio Education Association, Ohio Organizing Collaborative, Red Wine and Blue, Ohio Voice, Policy Matters Ohio, and Ohio Working Families Party, as well as One Fair Wage.
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