COLUMBUS, Ohio – Many minimum-wage workers in Ohio will be getting a 10-cent-an-hour raise next year, thanks to a state constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2006.
Ohio’s minimum wage is scheduled to increase on January 1 to $7.95 per hour from $7.85 for non-tipped employees and to $3.98 per hour from $3.93 for tipped employees. The increase applies to employees of businesses with annual gross receipts of more than $292,000 per year, according to the state Department of Commerce.
For employees at smaller companies and for 14- and 15-year-olds, the state minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.
The raise comes amid numerous calls for hikes in the federal and state minimum wages, including a move by fast food industry workers to raise the federal wage to $15. President Obama called for an increase to at least $9 an hour, which is what workers in Washington state and Oregon will be paid in 2014. California’s state legislature has approved a law raising the minimum wage there to $10 an hour by 2016.
A Hart Research Associates poll in July showed a majority of Americans — including 92 percent of Democrats, 62 percent of Republicans and 80 percent of independents — favor raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour and indexing it to the cost of living.
The amendment passed by voters requires the state’s minimum wage to increase on January 1 of each year by the rate of inflation, which is tied to the Consumer Price Index. The CPI index rose 1.5 percent over the 12-month period from September 1, 2012 to August 31.