State Representative Brigid Kelly — House Bill 69, House Commerce and Labor Committee

Summary

Sponsor testimony on House Bill 69, legislation to modernize Ohio's minimum wage, addressed to Chair Stein, Vice Chair Johnson, Ranking Member Lepore-Hagan, and members of the House Commerce and Labor Committee. The testimony says House Bill 69 will gradually phase in a $15 minimum wage by 2027. As written, the bill would have increased minimum pay to $10 beginning on January 1, 2022, and increased yearly by $1.00 an hour until 2027. It says voters in Florida and Nebraska passed ballot initiatives to raise state minimum wages to $15 per hour, and cites a 2021 Policy Matters Ohio report that raising the wage to $15 by 2026 would benefit about 1.6 million workers.

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“State Representative Brigid Kelly — House Bill 69, House Commerce and Labor Committee.” Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/2022-11-29-commerce-labor-testimony-testimony-15691-a5dc2d9b8f/, SHA-256 e4d3b25bd6765c5b9bc9ab51b18654f6ec1f091570b278e9e8c0786041e1ae75.

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Columbus Office Committees
77 S. High Street Finance
10th Floor State & Local Government
Columbus, OH 43215
614.466.5786

State Representative
Brigid Kelly

Chair Stein, Vice Chair Johnson, Ranking Member Lepore-Hagan, and members of the House Commerce and Labor
Committee, thank you for the opportunity to provide sponsor testimony on House Bill 69, legislation to modernize
Ohio’s minimum wage.

The promise of America is that it is supposed to be the land of opportunity, where if you work hard, you can succeed,
and you can get ahead. The bad news is that too many people in Ohio know it doesn’t matter how hard they work. Their
families still live, and often struggle, paycheck to paycheck. In fact, if median hourly compensation had grown at the
same rate as productivity over the 1979-2019 period, the median worker would be making $9.00 more per hour.1

The good news is this is a problem that can be solved. It doesn’t have to be this way. Profits and productivity can
continue to go up, but wages should, too. By modernizing our minimum wage, more people can earn the opportunity for
a better life.

A constitutional amendment passed in 2006 stated that Ohio’s minimum wage shall increase on January 1 of each year
by the rate of inflation. This January, the minimum wage will increase to $10.10 per hour ($5.05 for tipped employees).2
House Bill 69 will gradually phase in a $15 minimum wage by 2027, lifting pay for millions of workers and reversing
decades of growing pay inequality. As written, the bill would have increased minimum pay to $10 beginning on January
1, 2022, and increased yearly by $1.00 an hour until 2027, when it reaches $15 per hour.

In 2020, voters in Florida passed a ballot initiative to raise that state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2026.3 Our
legislation is based on this model and has a longer timeline, not reaching $15 until 2027, because Ohio’s minimum wage
increases take place in January. According to its ballot initiative, Florida increases occur in September.

Similarly, voters in Nebraska passed a ballot initiative this year, raising their state minimum wage to $15 per hour by
January 1, 2026.4

Raising pay is good for families and good for communities. According to a 2021 report from Policy Matters Ohio5 (Fairer
pay will boost Ohio: A case for a $15 minimum wage), “Raising the wage to $15 by 2026 would benefit about 1.6 million
workers, putting an average of more than $3,125 in their pockets each year and generating nearly $4.9 billion in new
wages in Ohio.” While this report assumes an increase to $15 by 2026, based on the Florida initiative, the bottom line is
that when people have more money in their pockets, they spend it. And they spend it in businesses in communities
across Ohio.

Raising pay also helps improve racial equality. The Policy Matters report6 notes that, “the majority of workers who
would benefit from raising the minimum wage to $15 are white (70.5%), but people of color are overrepresented among
Ohio’s lowest-paid workers and so are relatively more likely to benefit. Among Black workers, 44.2% would get a pay

1 https://www.epi.org/blog/growing-inequalities-reflecting-growing-employer-power-have-generated-a-productivity-pay-gap-since-1979-productivity-has-grown-3-5-

times-as-much-as-pay-for-the-typical-worker/
2 https://com.ohio.gov/static/documents/2023MWPoster.pdf
3 https://initiativepetitions.elections.myflorida.com/InitiativeForms/Fulltext/Fulltext_1801_EN.pdf
4 https://sos.nebraska.gov/sites/sos.nebraska.gov/files/doc/elections/Petitions/2022/Nebraska%20Minimum%20Wage%20Initiative.pdf
5 https://www.policymattersohio.org/files/research/mw15.pdf
6 https://www.policymattersohio.org/research-policy/fair-economy/work-wages/minimum-wage/fairer-pay-will-boost-ohio

31st House District:
Amberley - Avondale – Clifton - Columbia Twp. - Corryville – CUF - East Walnut Hills – Evanston
Hyde Park - Madisonville - Mt. Auburn - Northside - Norwood – Oakley – Silverton - St. Bernard - Walnut Hills
Printed in house.
increase. For Latinx workers, that figure is 45.3%. For Asian and other workers, 25.5% would get a pay increase. White
people benefiting from a minimum wage increase comprise 25.7% of all white workers. Among workers of other races
and ethnicities, 43.3% would benefit.”

Moreover, in Ohio, the annual household income needed to afford a two-bedroom rental home at HUD's Fair Market
Rent is $35,468.7 So, with a 2022 minimum wage of $9.30 per hour, presuming that a minimum wage worker has 40
hours per week (a big presumption), that worker makes $19,344 per year, or almost $16,000 less than what it takes to
be able to afford a rental property like this (before food, utilities, transportation, or any other regular expenses).

Legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 has been introduced in, at least, the 132nd, 133rd, and now 134th General
Assemblies. We heard the concerns of colleagues and made a longer runway for the increases. But the longer we wait to
act, the less impactful this action will be. In the meantime, too many families will continue to struggle to make ends
meet or be forced to rely on assistance. Four of Ohio’s 10 most common occupations (fast food workers, home health
aides, cashier, salesperson), employing about 452,900 Ohioans, paid so little that a worker with a family of three would
need food aid to feed their families.8

Successful businesses--large and small--have shown that good wages are good business. Showing up to work every day
and working hard to contribute to your company’s bottom line shouldn’t mean you have to rely on food stamps or cash
assistance just to get by. It shouldn’t mean you have to choose between rent and reliable transportation, or between
packing lunch and keeping your lights on. And raising the minimum wage means less turnover, longer careers, and lower
poverty rates. We also heard the concerns of colleagues about how this could impact jobs and businesses, but according
to the Policy Matters report9:

“Most of the research on minimum wage increases finds negligible or no impact on employment levels. Wolfson
and Belman looked at 37 studies conducted over 15 years and concluded that raising the minimum wage did not
have a substantial impact on U.S. employment. A study of 138 minimum wage increases from 1979 to 2016
found no overall change in the number of jobs as employment just below the new minimum wage dropped and
was offset by an equal-sized increase just above the new minimum, with no change in employment of higher paid
workers. The findings suggest that employers are complying with the law and raising wages but not adjusting
employment. The same study also found no evidence of employment effects in the restaurant industry or among
teens — two groups heavily impacted by the minimum wage — but some evidence of reduced employment in
manufacturing. That effect could square with the overall finding of no change in employment if the mix of
occupations changed.”

We can’t afford to stay stuck in the past with poverty-wage jobs that don’t let Ohioans live up to their full potential.
Ohio’s minimum wage needs an overhaul to meet the demands of today’s new economy.

As home health care worker Chaundra Kidd of Cleveland said similar legislation was introduced in the 132nd General
Assembly: "This is about paying my bills, this is about taking care of my family, this is about the dignity for the work that I
do.”

The is the single biggest thing, the most transformative thing, we can do for people and families in our state is to give
them a raise.

We are happy to answer your questions.
ural: $15.61

7 https://nlihc.org/housing-needs-by-state/ohio
8 https://www.policymattersohio.org/research-policy/fair-economy/work-wages/still-working-for-too-little-in-ohio
9 https://www.policymattersohio.org/files/research/mw15.pdf

Jarrells/Kelly – HB69 2

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