Minimum Wage Increase

Ohio's hourly minimum wage increased to $8.30 Jan. 1, according to the Ohio Department of Commerce.

Ohio's minimum wage was previously $8.15. The $8.30 rate applies to non-tipped employees. The minimum wage for tipped workers like waiters and waitresses will increase to $4.15 from $4.08.

Minimum wage workers are receiving a raise because of inflation. In 2006, Ohio voters approved a Constitutional Amendment stating that the minimum wage would increase annually on Jan. 1 based on the rate of inflation.

"The state minimum wage is tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI-W) for urban wage earners and clerical workers for the 12-month period prior to September," states a Department of Commerce news release. "This CPI-W index increased by 1.9 percent over the 12-month period from Sept. 1, 2016, to Aug. 31, 2017."

Some minimum wage workers in Ohio will not be paid $8.30 an hour. Ohio's minimum wage is $7.25 for workers at businesses with annual gross receipts of less than $305,000 and also for 14- and 15-year-old workers.

The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 since 2009 because Congress has not voted an increase. (The federal tipped wage is $2.13.) Over the years, bills have been introduced to increase the minimum wage, but they have usually not come up to vote. For example, last spring former presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, introduced a bill for a $15 federal minimum wage.

Twenty-nine states and Washington, D.C., had minimum wages that were higher than the federal rate, as of July 1, according to the Labor Department. Washington, D.C., had the highest minimum wage at $12.50. Massachusetts and Washington state were next at $11. Fourteen states, including Kentucky and Indiana, had a minimum wage of $7.50. Two states were below the federal minimum: Georgia and Wyoming at $5.15. Five states, including Alabama and Louisiana, had no required minimum wage.

At 20 hours per week, a worker would have the potential to earn an additional $156 annually with the increase.