Ohio Minimum-Wage Workers To Get A Raise In 2020

CLEVELAND — The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour hasn’t increased in a decade, but 21 states plan increases in 2020, including Ohio.

In 2006, Ohio voters passed a referendum that indexes the state minimum wage to the national Consumer Price Index, which means that it rises slightly every year. In 2020, the minimum will be $8.70 an hour for most workers, up from $8.55 in 2019, and $4.35 for tipped employees, up from $4.30 this year.

The state minimum applies only to larger employers, which the state defines as those grossing more than $319,000 in 2020.

The federal minimum wage rate has remained unchanged at $7.25 an hour since 2009, but state legislatures — and, in some cases, voters themselves through ballot measures — have approved minimum wage increases. In some cases, counties and cities have set minimum wage floors.

The 21 states enacting minimum wage hikes are Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, Vermont and Washington. The information was compiled by govdocs.com, a website that curates government documents on employment law for companies worldwide.

The highest of the new rates is in Washington State, where a 2016 voter-approved ballot initiative called for a $13.50 minimum wage floor in 2020, nearly twice the federal minimum wage. The Washington rate is up from $12 an hour in 2019. There is no provision in the law for tipped employees.

Several other states boosted minimum wage to $12 an hour, and several also increased the floor only modestly. For example, Florida’s minimum wage goes up less than 25 cents per hour, to $8.46, from $8.25 an hour in 2019.
The analysis showed widespread disparity in how minimum wage workers who are tipped are treated. In New Mexico, for example, the 2020 minimum wage for tipped employees is $2.35 an hour, compared with $9 and $8.98 an hour, respectively, in neighboring states Arizona and Colorado.