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--></style></head><body lang=EN-US link="#467886" vlink="#96607D" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><h2>Ohio minimum wage rising to $11 on Jan. 1: What workers need to know<o:p></o:p></h2><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%'><b>Cleveland.com<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%'><b>December 30, 2025</b> <b><o:p></o:p></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%'>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.<b><o:p></o:p></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%'>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.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%'>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.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%'>“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.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%'>“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.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%'>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.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%'>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.<o:p></o:p></p><div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:115%'><hr size=1 width="100%" align=center></div><h2>Melanie Watson, known as Kathy from 'Diff'rent Strokes,' dies at 57<o:p></o:p></h2><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%'><b>USA Today<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%'><b>December 29, 2025</b> <b><o:p></o:p></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%'><i>Melanie Watson Bernhardt's role on "Diff'rent Strokes" marked one of the first times a disabled actor played a disabled character on television.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%'><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1183407/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_8_in_0_q_Melanie%2520Watson" target="_blank">Melanie Watson Bernhardt</a>, the actress known as Kathy Gordon on "<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2021/12/08/jon-stewart-snoop-dogg-join-aniston-hart-facts-strokes-reprise/6424557001/" target="_blank">Diff'rent Strokes</a>," has died. She was 57.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%'>Watson Bernhardt's brother, Rob Watson, confirmed the actress died Friday, Dec. 26, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, per <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2025/12/28/different-strokes-melanie-watson-dies/" target="_blank">TMZ</a>. She had been in the hospital recently, the outlet reports, for bleeding.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%'>The actress was born with <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2024/03/28/osteogenesis-imperfecta-brittle-bone-disease/73109709007/" target="_blank">osteogenesis imperfecta</a>, also known as <a href="https://www.niams.nih.gov/health-topics/osteogenesis-imperfecta/syndicate" target="_blank">brittle bone disorder</a>, a genetic illness and <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2023/08/26/what-does-collagen-do/70496203007/" target="_blank">collagen</a> condition that leads to weak bones and related complications like short stature, bone deformities and fractures.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%'>Watson Bernhardt used a wheelchair, and her role opposite <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2020/07/14/childhood-fame-explored-on-showbiz-kids-hbo-documentary/5412712002/" target="_blank">Gary Coleman</a>'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.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%'>According to <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/norman-lear-doesnt-think-hes-revolutionary-1234588800/" target="_blank">IndieWire</a>, 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.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%'>"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."<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%'>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."<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%'>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.<o:p></o:p></p><div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:115%'><hr size=1 width="100%" align=center></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> Suzanne M. Hartfield Turner</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>National Federation of the Blind of Ohio, Vice President<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Ohio Legislative Director<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Cleveland Chapter, President<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:24.0pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:12.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:18.0pt'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>P: (216) 990-6199<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>W: NFBOhio.ORG<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal>Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ohiosblind/photos/"><span style='color:#0563C1'>https://www.facebook.com/ohiosblind/photos/</span></a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>