Ohio’s minimum wage will increase to $11.40 per hour in 2027 to keep up with inflation.
The pay hike, which takes effect Jan. 1, represents a 3.5% increase. Ohio’s hourly minimum wage is currently $11.
It is good that the lowest paid workers in the state are getting a raise, but it probably does little to boost their standard of living, said Heather Smith, work and wages researcher for Policy Matters Ohio, a progressive think tank.
In 2027, a full-time minimum wage worker will make about $23,712. That is $3,600 below the 2026 federal poverty level for a family of three, she said. That gap will likely widen when the 2027 federal poverty level is released early next year, Smith said.
“The minimum wage is too little to cover the cost of rent, utilities, healthcare, and other necessities for a single adult — let alone a family,” she wrote in an email to Signal Cleveland.
Ohio’s minimum wage increases are based on the inflation rate, as mandated in a state constitutional amendment voters approved in 2006.
Ohio uses the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), which is based on trends in the cost of common household goods and services as determined by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. They include: Rent, mortgage fees and utilities; groceries and dining out and prescriptions, doctor visits and insurance.
The Ohio Department of Commerce oversees the minimum wage in Ohio. Between Sept. 1, 2025, and Aug. 31, 2026, the time period the department used based on the law, the index rose 3.5%.
Cleveland’s living wage, also called a fair wage, is currently $16.26 per hour. This is the minimum city employees and those who work for companies with city contracts can be paid. Members of Cleveland’s Fair Employment Wage Board are focused on raising the living standards of residents in a city that consistently ranks among the poorest among cities of similar size nationally.
Supporters of a $15 minimum wage failed to collect enough signatures to get the issue on the 2024 ballot. That initiative would have eliminated the tipped wage in Ohio, which is paid to restaurant servers and others whose pay is routinely based on tips. Ohio’s tipped wage in 2027 will be $5.70 per hour in 2027, which also represents a 3.5% increase. Employers are supposed to make up the difference if workers don’t earn enough tips to make $11.40 per hour.
Tying Ohio’s minimum wage to inflation has helped low-wage workers, even if it hasn’t been enough, Smith said. For example, the federal minimum wage has been $7.25 per hour since 2009 because it isn’t linked to inflation and Congress has not raised it.
Because Ohioans approved an inflation-adjusted minimum wage back in 2006, the state minimum catches up with inflation from the previous year every January 1st, Smith wrote.
“However, it remains flat for the next 364 days, leaving workers to face price hikes in real time on a wage that was too low to begin with.”
