*OHIO – Last week, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend released a video calling for volunteers to join restaurant and other service workers for Ohio’s Election Days, November 6-8, 2022, as they collect petitions for a statewide ballot measure to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour and end the subminimum wages for tipped workers, workers with disabilities, and youth. The measure would be on the November 2024 ballot.
These workers are being supported by One Fair Wage Action and the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, two organizations with large bases of restaurant and service workers who have been working to not only raise the minimum wage but also end the subminimum wage for tipped workers, still just $4.65/ hour in Ohio.
Advocates expect this measure to lift wages for over 1 million workers in Ohio, and to drive voter turnout among hundreds of thousands of these workers who are expected to be motivated to ‘vote themselves a raise’ during the 2024 presidential election.
Chrissy Teigen and John Legend both have personal connections to this effort – Teigen is a best-selling author and Founder of Cravings, and Legend is a multi-platinum artist and activist from Ohio.
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In the video, both Teigen and Legend shine a light on the injustice of the subminimum wage for tipped workers, a direct legacy of slavery that is still just $2.13 an hour at the federal level, and a source of poverty and sexual harassment for a workforce that is overwhelmingly women, especially women of color and single mothers who work in casual restaurants and earn little in tips.
“On behalf of 14 million restaurant and service workers nationwide who have struggled mightily for generations and especially during the pandemic, we are thrilled and deeply appreciative of Chrissy Teigen and John Legend creating this video calling for volunteers to join us on election day in Ohio,” said Saru Jayaraman, President of One Fair Wage. “We look forward to working with hundreds of volunteers to collect thousands of signatures in Ohio on Election Day, and to continuing to work together with Chrissy and John to raise wages and end subminimum wages in the United States.”
