The Columbus Dispatch first published this opinion piece.

One Fair Wage, the sponsor pushing Raise the Wage Ohio — the proposed constitutional amendment that would artificially raise the state’s minimum wage — seems poised to pull an audacious switcheroo on early amendment supporters and unsuspecting Ohio voters. And the consequences, if they get away with it, could be catastrophic.

Amending the Ohio Constitution is a big deal.

Unlike statutes, constitutional amendments cannot be undone with a simple majority in the General Assembly and a willing governor’s signature.

To get an amendment on the ballot, sponsors must first submit 1,000 signatures of registered voters for certification by the attorney general and ballot board and then submit a petition signed by at least 10 percent of votes cast for governor during the last gubernatorial election — just under 443,000 signatures, currently.

They must also collect signatures in at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, equal to five percent of votes cast for governor in the previous election.

It’s a difficult process by design.

Given any amendment’s staying-power, sponsors should be careful to accurately explain what a proposed amendment will do and refrain from bait-and-switch tactics that mislead petition-signers or the public.

One Fair Wage assured petition-signers that Raise the Wage Ohio would be on the November 2024 ballot, and — if passed — the new minimum wage would take effect on Jan. 1, 2025. But One Fair Wage failed to gather the signatures required. If the group does gather the requisite signatures going forward, the proposed amendment still wouldn’t appear on the ballot until November 2025.

For some amendments, a one-year delay might be inconsequential, but not this time. If adopted, the amendment increases the minimum wage as of Jan. 1, 2025 — even though the measure couldn’t pass until next November.

Imposing a retroactive wage hike will wreak absolute havoc

The increase would become retroactive and require employers to provide 11 months of backpay. Businesses, large and small, would face unexpected wage bills of up to $10,000 per full-time employee, plus “an additional two times the amount of the back wages” as statutory damages.

Those who signed the Raise the Wage Ohio petition earlier this year expected that the proposal would be on this November’s ballot, and any employer costs would be purely prospective — effective January 2025. These original petition-signers never agreed to a proposal with retroactive consequences.

But One Fair Wage insists that it will use the very same signatures it already collected and submit them along with its petition for the November 2025 ballot — assuming that every one of those early signers now also supports retroactively hiking the minimum wage and hitting every Ohio business with an unexpected bill.

One Fair Wage does not deny that the amendment would apply retroactively, nor has it agreed to repoll the original petition-signers to confirm their continuing support for a new and very different amendment.

It is fair to suspect that if those petition-signers had been told that the amendment would trigger retroactive wage increases on unsuspecting businesses, at least some of them would not have signed on in support. For One Fair Wage to assume otherwise and to use signatures acquired under now-false representations to retroactively impose costs on Ohio businesses raises serious legal questions and risks setting a dangerous precedent.

As the Buckeye Institute has demonstrated previously, raising Ohio’s minimum wage will have negative and predictable consequences, but imposing a retroactive wage hike will wreak absolute havoc and devastate the state’s economy.

It seems only right that One Fair Wage should act in good faith and restart its petition effort. If not, the Buckeye Institute’s legal team stands ready to defend the interest of Ohioans and Ohio’s economy.

Robert Alt is the president and chief executive officer of the Buckeye Institute.