When I was living in Nebraska in 2014, the state passed a citizen-initiated minimum wage increase to raise the wage from $7.25 to $9 an hour.
At the time, Nebraska’s minimum wage was the highest in the country after adjusting for local cost of living. Nebraska was on the front end of a series of citizen ballot initiatives passed to expand minimum wages in states across the country, many passing by wide margins.
I was surprised when I moved back to Ohio in 2017 that there was not any active movement to increase the state minimum wage. Ohio is a state with a stronger labor history and presence than Nebraska, so I expected there would be a movement to increase the state minimum wage.
Here we are six years later, and ballot language has finally been approved for a vote on a new minimum wage for Ohio. The new proposal would raise the state minimum wage to $12.75 in 2024 and $15 in 2025 then index it to inflation after that.
Since the current minimum wage is also indexed to inflation, the 2025 minimum wage under current law will probably end up in the $11 an hour range. This means that the hourly minimum wage would be set four dollars higher under the proposal.
Minimum wages have had an interesting history among economists. They are a classic example of a price floor, where prices for labor are not allowed under a certain value. Neoclassical economic theory suggests this should lead to a shortfall in jobs since some companies willing to pay less than the minimum wage will not...
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