Hundreds of thousands of Ohioans will receive a pay raise tomorrow, thanks to a constitutional amendment voters passed in 2006 that indexes the state's minimum wage for certain workers to the rate of inflation.
Hourly pay for most minimum-wage workers in Ohio will increase by 30 cents to $7.30 an hour.
Ohio's higher minimum wage supersedes the federal $6.55 minimum wage for all workers except those who make more than $30 a month in tips, those who work for employers that have annual gross revenue of less than $267,000, or workers who are 14 or 15 years old, according to the Ohio Department of Commerce.
For those who rely on tips for their income, minimum hourly wage will increase to $3.65 an hour. Ohio's current minimum wage is $7 an hour for non-tipped employees and $3.50 an hour plus tips for tipped employees.
At least 300,000 workers in Ohio are paid the minimum wage, according to Policy Matters Ohio, a nonprofit think tank in Cleveland.
Ohio voters passed a constitutional amendment in November, 2006, that ties the state's minimum wage rates to the Consumer Price Index, the federal measure of inflation.In the 12 months prior to Sept. 1, 2008, the index rose by 4.6 percent. The amendment also rounds the per-hour increase to the nearest nickel.
For workers specifically exempted from the increase, such as employees of smaller companies or those under 16, the state minimum wage is currently $6.55 an hour.
That is to increase to $7.25 an hour with a scheduled increase in the federal minimum wage on July 24.
Michigan increased its minimum wage rate to $7.40 an hour on July 1. Michigan law allows employers to pay 16-year-old and 17-year-old employees at 85 percent of the minimum wage level and to pay new employees between the ages of 16 and 19 a "training wage" of $4.25 an hour for their first 90 days of employment.
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