COLUMBUS – Ohio’s minimum-wage workers got a bump in pay Monday when they received a voter-approved raise to keep pace with inflation, though one group says it will still leave many of them living in poverty.
About 146,000 Ohio workers who earn $8.15 an hour will receive a 15 cent raise to $8.30 and another 478,000 earning slightly more will likely get a bump too as employers adjust to maintain competitive pay scales, generating a total of about $106 million in increased wages, which Michael Shields, researcher with Policy Matters Ohio, says will mostly go to meet the basic needs of workers and their families, boosting the state’s overall economy.
“Next week’s raise will help poor working Ohioans, but $8.30 per hour still leaves a full-time worker about $3,000 short of the poverty line for a family of three,” Shields said.
Tipped workers will see a smaller raise of 7 cents per hour.
Ohio is one of 18 states raising the minimum wage in 2018.
The adjustment, put in place by a 2006 minimum wage ballot initiative, acts as a safeguard to protect wages for the poorest Ohioans from slipping backward, says Shields.
The federal wage rate of $7.25 an hour will remain in effect next year.
According to Shields, the buying power of the federal minimum wage has fallen by 25 cents since 1968 when it was worth about $10 in today’s dollars.
“Despite the inflation-adjustment since 2006, our state’s low wage workers are working for less than their counterparts did a half century ago,” Shields said.
A study by the progressive-leaning group in July stated that phasing in a $15 per hour state minimum wage by 2025 could boost the pay of about 1.8 million workers, Shields said.