Ohio Fair Wage Amendment certified by DeWine

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office today certified the petition for a proposed amendment to the Ohio Constitution regarding the state minimum wage.

Among other changes, the amendment seeks to increase the minimum wage to $10 per hour on Jan. 1, 2017 and increase it by 50 cents per hour each Jan. 1 until it reaches $12 per hour in 2012. After that, it will be adjusted annually for inflation.

On October 13, the Attorney General’s Office received a written petition to amend the Ohio Constitution, entitled “The Ohio Fair Wage Amendment,” from the petitioners' legal counsel.

The submission was certified today as containing both the necessary 1,000 valid signatures from registered Ohio voters and a “fair and truthful” summary of the proposed amendment.

“Without passing upon the advisability of the approval or rejection of the measure to be referred, … I hereby certify that the summary is a fair and truthful statement of the proposed law,” Ohio Attorney Mike General DeWine stated in his certification letter.

Once the summary language and initial signatures are certified, the Ohio Ballot Board must determine if the amendment contains a single issue or multiple issues.

The petitioners must then collect signatures for each issue from registered voters in each of 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, equal to 5 percent of the total vote cast in the county for the office of governor at the last gubernatorial election.

Total signatures collected statewide must also equal 10 percent of the total vote cast for the office of governor at the last gubernatorial election.

For more information, go to: http://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Petitions