Ohio Senate Democrats introduce bill to raise minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2029
A pair of Ohio Democratic state Senators are once again trying to raise Ohio’s minimum wage to $15 per hour.
Ohio State Sen. Kent Smith, D-Euclid, and Ohio Sen. Hearcel Craig, D-Columbus, introduced Senate Bill 234 last month, which would raise the minimum wage by a dollar per hour each year until reaching $15 per hour in 2029.
Ohio’s minimum wage is $10.70 per hour for non-tipped employees and $5.35 per hour for tipped employees. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.
“We’ve got a crisis of affordability right now,” Smith said. “And some of how you fix the crisis of affordability is you make sure people have more money in their pockets from the jobs they work.”
The bill would raise the state’s minimum wage to $12 per hour starting Jan. 1, 2026; $13 per hour in 2027; $14 per hour in 2028; and $15 per hour in 2029.
The state’s commerce director would then adjust the minimum wage every year on Sept. 30, starting with 2029. The new minimum wage would still take effect on Jan. 1 every year.
“We believe that it increases the purchasing and saving power of working Ohioans,” Craig said. “… We want families, no matter where you are, to have a livable wage.”
The bill would also eliminate the tipped employee minimum wage and require all employees to be paid the state’s minimum wage.
“I think it’s important to also raise the tip worker minimum wage, which is one of the main focuses of the bill because those folks seem to be stuck in poverty if they’ve got a tipped wage occupation,” Smith said.
This is not the first time Smith and Craig have introduced a bill that would increase the minimum wage.
The duo introduced a bill during the last General Assembly that would have raised the minimum wage until it was up to $15 an hour in 2027, but it only was given time for sponsor testimony.
Ohioans passed a constitutional amendment in 2006 that increases the state minimum wage every year based on the consumer price index.
Ohio House Democrats have also introduced a bill that would raise the state’s minimum wage.
State Reps. Dontavius Jarrells, D-Columbus, and Ismail Mohamed, D-Columbus, introduced Ohio House Bill 34, which would also increase the state’s minimum wage gradually per year, but S.B. 234 would get to $15 per hour faster.
Under H.B. 34, the state’s minimum wage would increase to $11 per hour on Jan. 1, 2026, $12 per hour in 2027, $13 per hour in 2028, $14 per hour in 2029 and $15 per hour in 2030.
Eleven states and Washington, D.C. have minimum wages of $15 or more, according to Paycom.
Ohioans need to be making at least $22.51 an hour working a full-time job to be able to afford a “modest” two-bedroom apartment, according to a recent report by Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio and the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
“People are getting squeezed … between rents, health insurance and public utility costs, all of those are going up substantially,” Smith said. “We need to make those arguments and lay them at the feet of the (Republican) majority and be like ‘You’re running this government. What are you going to do about it?’ Here’s one of the things you can do.”
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