DAYTON — The minimum wage in Ohio is going up next year.
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On Jan. 1, 2025, the minimum wage for non-tipped employees will increase from $10.45 to $10.70 per hour.
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The minimum wage for tipped employees will also go up from $5.25 to $5.35 per hour.
This will apply to employees of businesses with annual gross receipts of more than $385,000 per year.
The minimum wage for employees at small companies with annual gross receipts of $394,000 or less per year after Jan. 1 or for 14- and 15-year-olds is $7.25 per hour. That is tied to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, which requires an act of Congress and the President’s signature to change, according to the Ohio Department of Commerce.
News Center 7 caught up with shoppers on Friday to tell them about the increase.
“Little bit of a raise there kind of helps with a lot of people who are working minimum wage and live paycheck-to-paycheck,” Cole Tyree, of Dayton, said.
He talked about inflation and told News Center 7 that rising prices are really putting stress on workers in his situation.
“It’s crazy how expensive some things are. I just – because, for example, I just went in there and bought a 12-pack of pop and it was like eight bucks, which I think is crazy to me at least,” he said.
As shown on News Center 7 at 6:00, Mason Fletcher put those numbers in the US inflation calculator and learned something that cost $8 now would have been $2 cheaper 10 years ago.
The annual minimum wage increase is a result of a Constitutional Amendment passed in 2006. The amendment states the minimum wage shall increase on Jan. 1 each year by the rate of inflation.
For Tyree, that $8 pack of soda nearly cost him an hour of work.
“It’s a little bit harder but seeing it, like you said, seeing that increase, it’s going to help a lot of people,” he said.
While the increase makes money stresses a little easier, Tyree added he would like to see the minimum wage go even higher.
“If I had to say something, probably somewhere around $11,” he told News Center 7. “I feel like that’s reasonable for a lot of people, for minimum wage at least.”
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