YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – In Ohio this year, you may vote on a constitutional amendment to change how some restaurant workers are paid.

A group is gathering signatures to try and put the change on the ballot. An outside group wants to force Ohio to eliminate the tipped wage and raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

“I know my people, if it would affect their tips, would be pretty upset about it,” said Nick Liakaris, with The Mocha House.

Some local restaurant owners learned about the amendment Monday at a roundtable hosted by the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber. The Ohio Restaurant Association is leading the effort against it.

The national average for tipped employees is $27 an hour, and the National Restaurant Association says it’s between $19 and $41 an hour, far above raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

“Paying a food server that wage, which is fine, except there’s going to be a net effect. You’re gonna have to pay $25 to eat a burger in a restaurant,” said Mark Canzonetta, with Bistro 1907 and Wahaka Taco.

An employer is already obligated to make sure that a tipped employee is making the minimum wage with the tips they claim. Restaurant operators feel just raising the minimum could harm the dining experience.

“I think you would start seeing less full service in restaurants and more kind of food runners and others, as opposed to the traditional servers and tipped workers and bartenders,” said Tod Bowen with the Ohio Restaurant Association.

The Restaurant Association says every dollar spent in a restaurant is $2 to the state economy. A forced change in dropping the tipped wage could lead to a big change among the group that provides the second largest number of jobs in the state.

“You’ll see, only the chains will be able to survive versus the small, independent restaurant owner,” Canzonetta said.

“I think if they did away with it, they would be truly be disappointed because there are people always earning above and beyond the minimum wage for a restaurant employee,” Liakaris said.

One Fair Wage is a special interest group based in Massachusetts.