Members of a grassroots socialist campaign gathered at Columbus City Hall Monday to engage city council in a conversation about raising the minimum wage. It was a timely meeting, with governors from California and New York having signed bills phasing in a $15 minimum wage by 2022.
It’s been an idea tossed around a lot locally and in the presidential election. Left wing activists oppose the federal $7.25 minimum wage employed by 21 states. Ohio’s sits at $8.10, not projected to top $9 any time in the near future.
The Socialist Alternative, a nationwide grassroots group that organizes local liberalization efforts, is working to raise the minimum wage in Columbus, but member and organizer for the group, Steve Palm-Houser, said they’ve run into some challenges.
Last year, when council members were still candidates, Palm-Houser said there was support for raising the minimum wage. But even then, he said council member Jaiza Page told voters that there were barriers at the state level preventing cities from being able to raise the wage on their own.
“I believe that it is currently unconstitutional in the state of Ohio for a city to raise the minimum wage,” said Page, quoted in the Columbus Free Press last October. “I will, as a member of Columbus City Council, go to our state legislature” … “to raise the minimum wage, and to amend the constitution to allow cities to have the power to set their own minimum wages.”
Page was unavailable for comment.
Palm-Houser said the Socialist Alternative, as well as members from other liberal activist groups like Yes We Can Columbus and Central Ohio Grassroots for Bernie Sanders, gathered at City Hall Monday to continue this conversation.
“One of the questions we’re asking is has there been any progress on that barrier,” Palm- Houser said. “We wanted to push them specifically because they were very indefinite on their level of support for raising the minimum wage. We wanted to ask them if they specifically support a $15 minimum wage in Columbus, and they didn’t answer that either.”
Along with others, Adam Parsons, member of Yes We Can Columbus and Central Ohio Grassroots for Bernie Sanders, shared his testimony Monday, emphasizing the positive economic impact a $15 wage floor could have on the city.
“In 2014, 11 U.S. cities increased their minimum wage and seven cities increased their minimum wage in 2015,” Parsons said in his testimony. “These cities are seeing increased job growth and increased spending. We can make that happen here, too.”
Parsons, Palm-Houser and others are part of a socialist movement newly revived by the Bernie Sanders campaign. They aim for the same goals on which the presidential hopeful has run his race — universal health care and affordable child care, paid family leave and affordable housing.
“They really have to go together,” said Palm-Houser. “$15 is going to have limited benefits. Make it possible for working people to support their families and even have something left over to save.”