COLUMBUS, Ohio —– The Ohio Attorney General’s Office has accepted a petition seeking to amend Article II, Section 34a of the Ohio Constitution, which sets the state’s minimum-wage rate. The written petition, named “Raise the Wage Ohio Amendment,” was received on March 27 proposing to increase the minimum wage rate and modify existing requirements for various groups of employees.
This is the third version of the petition to be submitted to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. The original version was rejected on Oct. 14, 2022, over summary omissions. The petitioners then modified and resubmitted the petition, which was approved by the office on Oct. 28, 2022, but decided to make additional changes.
The Ohio Ballot Board will now determine whether the proposal contains a single constitutional amendment or multiple constitutional amendments. If the board certifies the proposal, the petitioners must collect signatures from registered voters equal to at least 10% of the vote cast in the most recent gubernatorial election. Those signatures must come from voters in at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, and for each of those counties, the number must equal at least 5% of the vote cast in the most recent gubernatorial election.
If sufficient signatures are verified by the Ohio Secretary of State at least 65 days before the election, the full text of the proposed amendment will be placed on the ballot in the next regular or general election that occurs subsequent to 125 days after the filing of such petition. The Ohio Attorney General’s role in the petition process is to determine whether the summary is a fair and truthful representation of the proposed statute. The full text of the certification letter and the petition can be found at www.OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov/Petitions.