A Pay Raise

An annual pay raise has kicked-in for Ohio’s minimum-wage workers, who will now earn $9.30 per hour, about $2 more than the federal minimum wage. The raise is the largest since 2006, when a ballot initiative indexed the minimum wage to inflation. Ohio is among nine states where a 2022 minimum-wage increase is tied to the cost of living. California’s hit $15 Jan. 1, as part of an incremental increase. Eight other states are also in the process of incrementally raising their minimum-wage amounts to $15 an hour. According to Policy Matters Ohio, raising Ohio’s minimum hourly wage to $15 by 2026 would benefit 1.6 million workers.