Janitors, landscapers, security guards and other workers employed by contractors who work for the city of Columbus will soon be making a minimum of $20 per hour following passage of a "living wage" ordinance Monday by Columbus City Council.
The council also approved spending more than $23 million on the cost to renovate a former school into a senior community center and park, and agreed to pay more than $200,000 to settle litigation with a Columbus police lieutenant.
Ohio law does not permit cities to change minimum wage for city employees. So the new "living wage" law approved Monday by City Council affects only competitive sealed bids, requiring that contractors agree to the $20 per hour minimum wage in order to be considered for Columbus contracts, said Councilman Rob Dorans, sponsor of the ordinance.
The $20 per hour approved by the council is well above the $10.10 minimum hourly wage in Ohio and the $7.25 federal hourly minimum..
Dorans, who is also the chief legal counsel for ACT Ohio, a nonprofit that advocates for workers in the construction industry, said that he began comparing wages for city workers and city contractors as long as two years ago.
"Unfortunately, we started finding more and more who were not meeting the living wage standard," he said. "If you're conducting a core function of the city of Columbus, you should be paid a fair wage."
Lifeguards and some other workers for the city make $20 per hour....
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