COLUMBUS, Ohio — An estimated 487,000 Ohioans will see their wages rise slightly in 2024, thanks to an automatic increase in the state’s minimum wage to $10.45 per hour for most non-tipped workers and $5.25 hourly for tipped workers.
The increases, which take effect Jan. 1, are up from the state’s current minimum wage of $10.10 per hour for non-tipped workers and $5.05 per hour for tipped employees. That means full-time minimum-wage workers will have a base salary of $21,736 in 2024, $728 more than this year.
The change will directly increase the pay of an estimated 150,700 Ohioans who currently receive less than $10.45 per hour, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning Washington, D.C., think tank. An additional 238,100 workers in the Buckeye State will also get a raise as employers adjust pay scales, the institute estimated, as will another 97,700 Ohioans who are paid partially in tips.
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 state’s minimum-wage hike stems from a voter-approved constitutional amendment in 2006, which requires annual increases tied to the rate of inflation.
Minimum-wage employees could see their paychecks grow even more if Ohio voters end up passing a proposed constitutional amendment that would raise the state minimum wage to $15 per hour for both tipped and non-tipped workers starting in 2028. Supporters of the proposed amendment, which was put forward by the Ohio chapter of a national campaign to increase minimum wages, are currently gathering signatures with the aim to put the measure on the November 2024 statewide ballot.
Labor leaders have said that even incremental increases in the state’s minimum wage are noticed by workers over the course of a year. Business groups, on the other hand, argue that such increases make it harder for employers to cover their expenses and hire more workers.
Ohio had 5,658,600 jobs in October 2023, the highest nonagricultural wage and salary employment the state has seen since at least 1990, when government officials began tracking employment numbers in this way. That number dipped by about 5,300 jobs last month, though the state’s unemployment rate remained at 3.6% — close to the record low 3.3% unemployment rate Ohio had in July.
