SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP, Ohio — If you make minimum wage in Ohio, you’ll see a pay increase beginning Jan. 1, 2024.
The Ohio minimum wage is determined by the Consumer Price Index for urban wage earners and clerical workers over the 12 months prior to September. The index increased 3.7% from Sept. 1, 2022, to Aug. 31, 2023, according to the Ohio Department of Commerce.
“I don’t think that’s enough to make a living off of,” said Demarius Poston. “Everything keeps going up and up and up.”
Floyd Walker, owner of Happy’s Pizza in Springfield Township, agrees.
WCPO 9 News first spoke to him last year, when he needed to fill five of 12 staff positions. Now, he’s fully staffed up.
“We had to evaluate who we were hiring, we had to evaluate what we were paying them,” Walker said.
He’s paying above minimum wage and said most employees have remained on the job. In the past, he’s experienced a high turnover rate.
“If you want your employees to be loyal to you, you have to pay above minimum wage,” he said. “You have to look at living wages.”
A living wage is the hourly rate an individual must make to support themselves. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology calculator shows that’s $15.34 for a single adult in Cincinnati.
The $0.35 increase to $10.45 this year is the third largest in the last 10 years, but relatively small compared to last year’s $0.80 increase.
Unique Walker, owner of Walker’s Learning Center, said it’s important to pay individuals what they’re worth. It’s fundamental to providing a good work environment, she said.
“It allows them to be able to use those funds to do whatever they need to do. Then they come back to work excited,” Walker said.
Victoria Foster, owner of Victory Lane Boutique, said it’s critical to raise salaries from minimum wage for employees “to be able to live comfortably.”
There is a push to increase the minimum wage via an Ohio state constitutional amendment. Jermaine Crutchfield spent the day downtown gathering signatures for a ballot issue.
“I’m out here to get some sense of stability in my community,” said Crutchfield. “This is a start. $15 to me, in my case, isn’t even enough.”
