Ohio’s minimum wage will rise to $11.40 an hour for non-tipped employees on Jan. 1, 2027, up from $11 this year, the Ohio Department of Commerce has announced. The tipped-employee rate will rise to $5.70 an hour, up from $5.50, under the same announcement from the department’s Division of Industrial Compliance and its Bureau of Wage and Hour Administration.
The increase is 3.5 percent, and it was not set by a new bill. Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment in November 2006 that requires the state minimum wage to increase on Jan. 1 each year by the rate of inflation, measured by the Consumer Price Index for urban wage earners and clerical workers for the 12-month period ending in August.
The department said the 3.5 percent figure corresponds to that index’s change from Sept. 1, 2025, to Aug. 31, 2026. Because the adjustment is written into the Ohio Constitution, the new rate takes effect automatically each year once the state announces it, without further action by the General Assembly.
The coverage threshold is changing, too. Effective Jan. 1, 2027, the Ohio minimum wage will apply to businesses with annual gross receipts of more than $420,000, up from the current $405,000 threshold, the department said. For employees at businesses at or below that threshold, and for 14- and 15-year-old workers, the rate remains tied to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
For tipped workers, the $5.70 figure is the direct cash wage; tips combined with that wage must still bring a worker to the full minimum for hours worked. Employers across Ohio — in restaurants, retail, hospitality and care work, where minimum-wage jobs are most common — will need payroll systems and postings updated before the first pay periods of 2027.
To help with compliance, employers are required to display the official 2027 minimum wage poster, which is available on the Division of Industrial Compliance website, the department said. The bureau is the state office that enforces Ohio’s minimum wage laws, workplace protections for minors, and fair-pay rules on public improvement projects.
For a full-time worker paid the minimum, a 40-cent hourly increase adds up over a year of full-time hours, even though any single paycheck change will look small. Workers who believe they are still being paid the old rate after Jan. 1 can raise it with their employer first and can also contact the state’s wage and hour bureau for guidance.
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