COLUMBUS – Ohio’s lowest-paid workers will get a raise on New Year’s Day but it will still leave many families struggling to make ends meet, according to one policy group.
The 84,000 Ohioans who work for minimum wage will get a 15-cent-an-hour bump to $8.70 to keep pace with rising prices, thanks to a 2006 ballot initiative that tied the state’s minimum wage to inflation.
But, that wage will leave a family of three still $3,000 short of the poverty level, said Michael Shields, researcher for the progressive-leaning Policy Matters Ohio.
Tipped workers’ earnings will adjust from $4.30 to $4.35.
Even with the increase, Shields says Ohio’s minimum wage is less than the wage in neighboring states Michigan and West Virginia and well below the phased-in $15 minimum wage laws passed in six states and Washington, D.C.
The minimum wage in Ohio and nationally peaked in 1968 at just over $12 an hour in 2019 dollars and has fallen by 28 percent since then, when adjusted for inflation, Shields said.