[NFBOH-Cleveland] Two Good Reads

Wed Dec 31 14:30:15 UTC 2025

Ohio minimum wage rising to $11 on Jan. 1: What workers need to know

Cleveland.com

December 30, 2025 

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Minimum wage workers across Ohio will see a bump in their
paychecks on Jan. 1, when the state's minimum wage will increase to $11 per
hour for non-tipped employees and $5.50 per hour for tipped workers.

The change represents a 2.8% increase from 2025, which set minimum hourly
rates at $10.70 and $5.35, respectively. The increase will affect the
estimated 150,000 minimum wage workers of the total 5.5 million workers in
Ohio.

Unlike the federal minimum wage, which has remained at $7.25 per hour since
2009, Ohio's minimum wage adjusts automatically each year based on the rate
of inflation. A constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2006 mandates
that Ohio's minimum wage increases on Jan.1 each year by the rate of
inflation.

"I think the key fact for everybody to understand is Ohio's minimum wage,
unlike the federal minimum wage, is already indexed," said Steve Stivers,
President and CEO of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

"And so because our minimum wage is higher than the federal minimum wage,
the state minimum wage is what applies to Ohio employers that they have to
pay."

However, there are requirements that determine which businesses must comply
with Ohio's minimum wage - a threshold that will also rise in 2026. Starting
on Jan. 1, the state minimum wage will apply to businesses with annual gross
receipts exceeding $405,000, up from the current $394,000 threshold.

While Stivers said that the threshold includes almost every Ohio business,
smaller businesses with annual receipts of $405,000 or less will remain
subject to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. This federal rate
also applies to workers aged 14 and 15, regardless of business size.

  _____  

Melanie Watson, known as Kathy from 'Diff'rent Strokes,' dies at 57

USA Today

December 29, 2025 

Melanie Watson Bernhardt's role on "Diff'rent Strokes" marked one of the
first times a disabled actor played a disabled character on television.

Melanie Watson Bernhardt
<https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1183407/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_8_in_0_q_Mel
anie%2520Watson> , the actress known as Kathy Gordon on "Diff'rent Strokes
<https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2021/12/08/jon-stewart-snoo
p-dogg-join-aniston-hart-facts-strokes-reprise/6424557001/> ," has died. She
was 57.

Watson Bernhardt's brother, Rob Watson, confirmed the actress died Friday,
Dec. 26, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, per TMZ
<https://www.tmz.com/2025/12/28/different-strokes-melanie-watson-dies/> .
She had been in the hospital recently, the outlet reports, for bleeding.

The actress was born with osteogenesis imperfecta
<https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2024/03/28/osteogenesis
-imperfecta-brittle-bone-disease/73109709007/> , also known as brittle bone
disorder
<https://www.niams.nih.gov/health-topics/osteogenesis-imperfecta/syndicate>
, a genetic illness and collagen
<https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2023/08/26/what-does-co
llagen-do/70496203007/>  condition that leads to weak bones and related
complications like short stature, bone deformities and fractures.

Watson Bernhardt used a wheelchair, and her role opposite Gary Coleman
<https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2020/07/14/childhood-fame-e
xplored-on-showbiz-kids-hbo-documentary/5412712002/> 's Arnold Jackson as
his optimistic friend Kathy Gordon on the 1970s and '80s sitcom provided
genuine disability representation to television. She starred on "Diff'rent
Strokes" for four episodes from 1981 to 1984.

According to IndieWire
<https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/norman-lear-doesnt-think-hes-rev
olutionary-1234588800/> , the role was written specifically for her. Two of
the episodes were named after her character. In one episode, the pair's
parents convince Arnold that he should encourage Kathy to walk with
crutches, despite the character not wanting to.

"I did not want to do that," she told the outlet, adding that a fall years
prior made her fearful of walking. "I can remember saying, 'This is somebody
else's dream.' But they explained to me this was the premise of the
episode."

She said her mother told her to just do the scene, and though she did, it
disillusioned her from acting, she said. But she added: "I didn't realize
what a gift it was to be the first one out there" as a disabled person
playing a disabled character. "If I had to do it all over again I would have
stayed in the business."

Coleman himself suffered from an autoimmune kidney disease, which was
treated with medication that led to his short stature at 4 feet 8 inches. He
died in 2010 at age 42, after a fall down the stairs at his home.

  _____  

Suzanne M. Hartfield Turner

National Federation of the Blind of Ohio, Vice President

Ohio Legislative Director

Cleveland Chapter, President

The National Federation of the Blind advances the lives of its members and
all blind people in the United States. We know that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. Our collective power, determination,
and diversity achieve the aspirations of all blind people.

P: (216) 990-6199

W: NFBOhio.ORG

Facebook:  <https://www.facebook.com/ohiosblind/photos/>
https://www.facebook.com/ohiosblind/photos/

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