Porter trustees to meet today

A special meeting of the Porter Township trustees will be conducted at 5 p.m. today at the township hall, 1535 Dogwood Ridge, Wheelersburg.

The purpose of the meeting is to approve the Ohio Public Works Commission grant documents.

October Civil Service meeting canceled

The Civil Service Commission meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 8, has been canceled due to no items on the agenda.

Unless advised differently, the next meeting will be at noon, Tuesday, Nov. 12, in the conference room at the Portsmouth City Health Department, 605 Washington St., Portsmouth.

State minimum wage to go up to $10.70 on Jan. 1

Ohio’s minimum wage is scheduled to increase Jan. 1 to $10.70 per hour for non-tipped employees and $5.35 per hour for tipped employees. The minimum wage will apply to employees of businesses with annual gross receipts of more than $394,000 per year.

The current 2024 minimum wage is $10.45 per hour for non-tipped employees and $5.25 per hour for tipped employees. The 2024 Ohio minimum wage applies to employees of businesses with annual gross receipts of more than $385,000.

The Constitutional Amendment (II-34a) passed by Ohio voters in November 2006 states Ohio’s minimum wage shall increase on January 1 each year by the rate of inflation. The state minimum wage is tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI-W) for urban wage earners and clerical workers over the 12-month period prior to September. The CPI-W index increased by 2.4 percent over the 12-month period from Sept. 1, 2023, to Aug. 31, 2024.

For employees at smaller companies with annual gross receipts of $394,000 or less per year after Jan. 1 and for 14- and 15-year-olds, the state’s minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. For these employees, the state wage is tied to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, which requires an act of Congress and the President’s signature to change.

Employers can access the 2025 Minimum Wage poster for display in their places of business by visiting the Ohio Department of Commerce’s Division of Industrial Compliance’s Bureau of Wage and Hour website.

LASCO awarded grant for pro bono legal work

The Legal Services Corporation has announced it is awarding a Pro Bono Innovation Fund grant of $359,546 to Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio, or LASCO.

LASCO serves the Scioto County area. It is one of 21 legal aid organizations receiving a grant. In total, LSC is awarding $5.4 million to support efforts to expand and improve pro bono legal services for low-income Americans.

With its $359,546 grant, LASCO will launch the Home Safe Project to provide limited-scope asylum and work authorization assistance through clinics staffed by volunteer attorneys, law students and paralegals. The project will address the overwhelming influx of vulnerable asylum seekers in central Ohio lacking access to legal services. By collaborating with private law firms, corporate legal departments, local law schools, paralegal associations and immigrant-serving community organizations, LASCO aims to improve economic opportunities for asylum seekers while building capacity in the local legal community. Legal services will include asylum and employment authorization clinics and a pilot full representation program with the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law Immigration Clinic.

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