For a full-time minimum wage worker, the 10 cent raise will mean annual earnings will go to $16,536, a hike of $208.
The state’s minimum wage is linked to inflation under a constitutional amendment approved by Ohio voters in 2006. Unions and advocates for low-wage workers pushed the measure as a way to protect workers from losing buying power over time. Voters endorsed the measure 56.6 percent to 43.4 percent.
“The increases at the very bottom are needed. People are struggling. These aren’t jobs just for kids…These are jobs for people who are working independently and trying to support their families,” said Tim Burga of the Ohio AFL-CIO.
Sean Chichelli, Ohio Chamber of Commerce director of labor and human resources policy, said businesses don’t embrace the minimum wage hike but at least it’s predictable. “They’re prepared for it because they know it’s there and this adjustment is made yearly.”
Chichelli said a large swath of minimum wage workers are younger, single people without children who are gaining work experience. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicate half of those earning minimum wage are under age 25 and roughly 4 percent of hourly workers make the federal minimum, Chichelli said.
A mandatory minimum wage has been on the federal books since 1938 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it into law during the Great Depression. The federal minimum wage stands at $7.25 an hour, unchanged since July 2009.
Ohio is one of 13 states that will increase the minimum wage on New Year’s Day. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 19 states and the District of Columbia have minimum wage laws that set the rate higher than the federal minimum, four states have rates lower than the federal minimum and five states have no minimum wage laws. Ten states link minimum wage increases to inflation.
About the Author
