An estimated 330,000 Ohioans will see a slightly heftier paycheck in 2014, thanks to an automatic increase in the state’s minimum wage.
Starting Jan. 1, Ohio’s minimum wage will rise 10 cents per hour to $7.95 per hour, while tipped employees’ base salaries will go up 5 cents to $3.98 per hour, according to the Ohio Department of Commerce.
Full-time workers making $7.95 per hour would earn $16,536 per year, $208 more than what they would make this year.
The minimum wage hike stems from a voter-approved constitutional amendment in 2006, which requires annual increases tied to the rate of inflation.
Ohio’s changes won’t apply to employees working for small businesses or workers younger than 16. They’ll continue to be paid at least $7.25 per hour, the federal minimum wage rate.
The 2014 wage increase could increase the state’s gross domestic product by an estimated $38.8 million, according to the National Employment Law Project.
Anthony Caldwell, a spokesman for the local SEIU District 1199, said earning 10 cents more an hour might not seem like a lot, but over time the additional money will be noticed by workers.
However, Caldwell said Ohio’s minimum wage is still far too low to live on. He voiced support for legislation, currently stalled in Congress, that would raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour.
Sean Chichelli, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce’s director of labor and human resources policy, said it’s difficult to say how Ohio’s latest wage increase, by itself, will affect businesses. But as the state minimum wage continues to rise each year, he said, employers will find it more difficult to cover their expenses and hire more workers.
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