(The Center Square) – More than 100,000 Ohioans working for minimum wage can expect a raise on Thursday.
The state’s minimum wage, tied to inflation, will go from $10.70 an hour to $11 in the new year, impacting 103,800 people currently paid less than the new figure. Also, the tipped minimum wage will increase to $5.50 an hour.
Policy Matters Ohio, however, believes the adjustment will impact another 169,000 workers and nearly 100,000 working jobs for tips.
The group believes employers will adjust their overall pay scales to better align with the new minimum wage.
The state’s minimum wage has automatically increased since 2006, when Ohio voters passed a constitutional amendment to tie it to inflation.
The wage has increased 18 times since then, with the largest inflation-based increase occurring in 2023 at 8.7%. That took workers from $9.30 an hour to $10.10.
Last year, workers saw a 25-cent increase on New Year’s Day.
“Across the country, voters have been passing $15 minimum wage laws, and in 2026, more will live in a state with a $15 minimum wage than in a state that relies on the federal minimum of $7.25,” Policy Matters Ohio Work and Wage Researcher Heather Smith said. “While Ohio’s indexed minimum wage is nothing to scoff at – it has ensured hundreds of thousands of Ohioans received relief from inflation for nearly twenty years – Ohio should join the ranks of states with minimum wage laws closer to the cost of living. Ohioans deserve better, and our economy can handle it. It’s time to raise the wage.”
Last year, a citizen-led effort to propose a constitutional amendment to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026 failed to gather enough signatures to reach the ballot.
