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 employee s 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