Ohio's minimum hourly wage rises to $7.85 on Tuesday

12/28/2012

Starting Tuesday, Ohio’s minimum wage will rise by 15 cents to $7.85 an hour.

The Ohio Department of Commerce announced the increase in September.

For employees who receive tips, the minimum wage will increase to $3.93.

The new minimum wage rates will apply to employees of businesses with annual gross receipts of more than $288,000 a year as of Jan. 1. The 2012 rates apply to business with gross receipts of $283,000 annually.

For somebody working 40 hours a week, the change will mean an extra $6 a week. Most minimum-wage employees work fewer than 40 hours a week.

Other workers who make slightly more than minimum wage likely will be indirectly affected because employers often bump their pay slightly so they make more than the minimum.

According to the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute, the change will directly or indirectly affect about 215,000 low-wage workers in the state, and the increased consumer spending generated by the minimum-wage hike will boost the gross domestic product in Ohio by $43 million.

Nine other states — Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington — also will raise state minimum wage rates on Tuesday.

Michigan’s minimum wage is $7.40 an hour, as it has been since July 1, 2008.

For tipped employees, Michigan’s minimum wage is $2.65 per hour.

An amendment to the Ohio Constitution that voters passed in November, 2006, requires the minimum wage in the state to increase each Jan. 1 by the rate of inflation.

For employees at Ohio companies with less than $288,000 in gross receipts, and for 14 and 15-year-olds, the state minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.

The minimum wage of those employees is tied to the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour, which requires an act of Congress and the President’s signature to be changed.