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NO

Arguments for passage:
1. Ohio's minimum wage, increased earlier this year to equal the federal minimum wage, equals only 31% of average hourly earnings.
2. Wage earners paid at the current minimum cannot afford to maintain a decent standard of living with the income erosion due to inflation and the increasing cost of such items as health care and gasoline. Most are living below the poverty line.
3. Research suggests that there is no measurable negative impact on employment. Rather, states with higher minimum wages have performed as well as, or better economically than states with lower minimum wages, with more growth in small businesses and small-business jobs over the past decade.
4. Raising the minimum wage would increase the buying power of low income people, increasing tax revenues and stimulating the economy.

Arguments against passage:
1. It is inappropriate to place this proposal in the state constitution, which should be a clear and internally consistent body of fundamental principles.
2. This amendment would tie cost-of-living minimum wage adjustments to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which may be considered an artificial means of setting wages, not necessarily reflecting the true value of the job.
3. Raising the minimum wage is believed to have a negative effect on job creation and will force job losses, particularly among teenagers and young adults.
4. Increased labor costs are likely to be passed on to consumers as higher prices for goods and services.

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Raise the Wage

Ohioans to Protect Personal Privacy

Argues against Issue 2

Vote YES on Issue 2 to restore the value of the minimum wage so hard working Ohioans are able to provide for themselves and their families. Raising the wage will encourage personal responsibility and lift many low-wage workers out of poverty.

The real value of the federal minimum wage has reached a 50-year low because it has not kept up with the rising cost of living. Today, a full-time worker at the current minimum wage of $5.15 earns just $206 per week, or $10,712 per year, well below the poverty line for a family of three.

We can do better. The Ohio Minimum Wage Amendment would restore the value that the minimum wage has lost over time.

The Amendment would raise Ohio's minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.85 per hour on January 1, 2007. Each year afterwards, the minimum wage would increase if the cost of living rises, protecting Ohio's lowest paid workers from losing ground. It also provides enforcement measures, similar to the federal minimum wage law, so Ohioans can protect themselves against unscrupulous employers.

The Amendment would raise wages for over 700,000 Ohio workers. On average, these workers provide half of their families' weekly earnings. Nearly three-quarters of the workers who would benefit are adults over twenty. More than 250,000 Ohio children have a parent who will benefit.

Twenty-two other states have raised the minimum wage above the federal level and studies show that r aising the minimum wage substantially helps families while improving the overall economy. Between 1997 and 2003, states with higher minimum wages had more overall job growth.

Ohioans have always valued hard work, but our minimum wage has not kept pace. We believe honest work deserves honest pay. Vote YES on Issue 2 to restore the value of the minimum wage for hard working Ohioans.

Prepared by: Ohioans for a Fair Minimum Wage, Hon. C. J. Prentiss, Pierrette M. Talley, Katrin Heins, and Gary L. Coles

Vote NO on Issue 2 for these reasons:

It's a massive intrusion into your personal privacy . Backers say the amendment is about the minimum wage, but read the fine print. It gives employees or any person acting on behalf of an employee the right to demand private salary records for all employees (not just hourly workers). This will give access to your private information, which could then become public. Disclosure of home addresses and other personal data will put you at risk of identity theft. Records requirements are costly and open employers to harassment . The amendment was drafted by anti-business activists who propose that all public and private employers + including state and local governments and homeowners + maintain decades worth of records while employees are working and three years afterward. This will cost millions of dollars, yet employers will have to provide these records without charge to any employee or employee representative who asks. Unhappy workers or activist organizations will have authority to make repeated, costly requests. The amendment means a huge increase in the cost of government. State and local governments will be saddled both with enforcing the amendment and meeting their own costly obligations as major employers. You'll foot the bill. The amendment doesn't really help low-income Ohioans. A higher minimum wage will trigger thousands of layoffs in lower-paying jobs + hurting, rather than helping, Ohioans who need higher wages the most. Better approaches are to increase the federal Earned Income Tax Credit and to improve job-development and training. As part of the Constitution, the amendment cannot easily be changed to correct unintended consequences. This amendment, which is hostile to both employers and employees, will damage Ohio's job climate. The legislature will be powerless to fix it. VOTE NO ON ISSUE 2.

Submitted by Ohioans to Protect Personal Privacy

John C. Mahaney, Jr., Andrew Doehrel and Ty Pine

THE OHIO FAIR MINIMUM WAGE AMENDMENT

Be it Resolved by the People of the State of Ohio that Article II, Section 34a of the Ohio Constitution is hereby enacted as follows:

ARTICLE II, Section 34a Except as provided in this section, every employer shall pay their employees a wage rate of not less than six dollars and eighty-five cents per hour beginning January 1, 2007. On the thirtieth day of each September, beginning in 2007, this state minimum wage rate shall be increased effective the first day of the following January by the rate of inflation for the twelve month period prior to that September according to the consumer price index or its successor index for all urban wage earners and clerical workers for all items as calculated by the federal government rounded to the nearest five cents. Employees under the age of sixteen and employees of businesses with annual gross receipts of two hundred fifty thousand dollars or less for the preceding calendar year shall be paid a wage rate of not less than that established under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act or its successor law. This gross revenue figure shall be increased each year beginning January 1, 2008 by the change in the consumer price index or its successor index in the same manner as the required annual adjustment in the minimum wage rate set forth above rounded to the nearest one thousand dollars. An employer may pay an employee less than, but not less than half, the minimum wage rate required by this section if the employer is able to demonstrate that the employee receives tips that combined with the wages paid by the employer are equal to or greater than the minimum wage rate for all hours worked. The provisions of this section shall not apply to employees of a solely family owned and operated business who are family members of an owner. The state may issue licenses to employers authorizing payment of a wage rate below that required by this section to individuals with mental or physical disabilities that may otherwise adversely affect their opportunity for employment.

As used in this section: "employer," "employee," "employ," "person" and "independent contractor" have the same meanings as under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act or its successor law, except that "employer" shall also include the state and every political subdivision and "employee" shall not include an individual employed in or about the property of the employer or individual's residence on a casual basis. Only the exemptions set forth in this section shall apply to this section.

An employer shall at the time of hire provide an employee the employer's name, address, telephone number, and other contact information and update such information when it changes. An employer shall maintain a record of the name, address, occupation, pay rate, hours worked for each day worked and each amount paid an employee for a period of not less than three years following the last date the employee was employed. Such information shall be provided without charge to an employee or person acting on behalf of an employee upon request. An employee, person acting on behalf of one or more employees and/or any other interested party may file a complaint with the state for a violation of any provision of this section or any law or regulation implementing its provisions. Such complaint shall be promptly investigated and resolved by the state. The employee's name shall be kept confidential unless disclosure is necessary to resolution of a complaint and the employee consents to disclosure. The state may on its own initiative investigate an employer's compliance with this section and any law or regulation implementing its provisions. The employer shall make available to the state any records related to such investigation and other information required for enforcement of this section or any law or regulation implementing its provisions. No employer shall discharge or in any other manner discriminate or retaliate against an employee for exercising any right under this section or any law or regulation implementing its provisions or against any person for providing assistance to an employee or information regarding the same.

An action for equitable and monetary relief may be brought against an employer by the attorney general and/or an employee or person acting on behalf of an employee or all similarly situated employees in any court of competent jurisdiction, including the common pleas court of an employee's county of residence, for any violation of this section or any law or regulation implementing its provisions within three years of the violation or of when the violation ceased if it was of a continuing nature, or within one year after notification to the employee of final disposition by the state of a complaint for the same violation, whichever is later. There shall be no exhaustion requirement, no procedural, pleading or burden of proof requirements beyond those that apply generally to civil suits in order to maintain such action and no liability for costs or attorney's fees on an employee except upon a finding that such action was frivolous in accordance with the same standards that apply generally in civil suits. Where an employer is found by the state or a court to have violated any provision of this section, the employer shall within thirty days of the finding pay the employee back wages, damages, and the employee's costs and reasonable attorney's fees. Damages shall be calculated as an additional two times the amount of the back wages and in the case of a violation of an anti-retaliation provision an amount set by the state or court sufficient to compensate the employee and deter future violations, but not less than one hundred fifty dollars for each day that the violation continued. Payment under this paragraph shall not be stayed pending any appeal.

This section shall be liberally construed in favor of its purposes. Laws may be passed to implement its provisions and create additional remedies, increase the minimum wage rate and extend the coverage of the section, but in no manner restricting any provision of the section or the power of municipalities under Article XVIII of this constitution with respect to the same.

If any part of this section is held invalid, the remainder of the section shall not be affected by such holding and shall continue in full force and effect.