COLUMBUS, Ohio – The COVID-19 pandemic has undermined the livelihoods of many Ohioans. However new data reveals a significant number of Ohio workers were already were scrapping to get by.
A new report shows that six of Ohio’s 10 most common jobs in 2019 paid near-poverty wages. Researcher Michael Shields with Policy Matters Ohio explains these occupations include fast-food employees, home health-care aides and stockers who are risking their own health working on the front lines during the new coronavirus outbreak.
“Without their work, we wouldn’t be able to shelter at home in the midst of a crisis,” says Shields. “But many of these workers don’t have either a living wage or the safety protocols that they need.”
Ohio starts the first phase of reopening today and Shields contends policymakers must protect the economy by protecting workers. The report recommends measures to ensure workers have access to safety protocols and gear, shore up unemployment compensation, provide emergency paid sick leave and increase the minimum wage.
Ohio’s current minimum wage is $8.70, however the report shows that in 1968 the federal minimum wage was worth over $12 per hour in today’s dollars. Shields says too many Ohioans were left out of the recovery of the last recession.
“45% of the income growth went to the top 1%,” says Shields. “That’s through year 2018. That’s giving people no cushion for the income shock that so many of us are facing right now. So we need to make sure that this recovery reaches everyone. That needs to include a living minimum wage for Ohio.”
Shields contends that as policymakers take steps to address the COVID-19 crisis, they also must ensure all workers are protected as the state gets back to work.
“This is a moment that will help us to recognize the value in workers who are doing jobs that really are vital to us all,” says Shields. “They are helping to sustain us through this crisis. But at the same time, these are workers who have not always been recognized as vital, so I hope that is what will change going forth.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly one million Ohioans who were working in March are currently out of work today.
This article appears in Apr 29 – May 5, 2020.
Education is the answer, look at CMSD graduation rates and this is a suprise?
So happy the health and human services issue passed,, so many are in need.
Hilarious that some of you people are so deluded that you think ambition and marketable skills are the answer to this problem. The plain fact of the matter is that there aren’t enough jobs that do pay a living wage to go around as it is, has nothing to do with ambition or skillsets.
It used to be that you could start at the bottom and work your way up to something decent but corporate greed and the fact that people are living and working longer than they ever have before means that there’s no upward mobility. Combine that with the fact that wages haven’t kept pace with inflation or cost of living increases and you have what we have now, more people in need of social services because greedy shits in corporate America are relying on what’s known as corporate welfare. Multi billion dollar a year companies who refuse to pay their workers a living wage because they’d rather fill their own pockets and screw whether their employees can eat or not.
Instead of just running your mouth about how everyone but you is a lazy, good for nothing layabout you should probably recognize how rigged the game actually is. For every feel good, I pulled myself up by my bootstraps story there are 20 that went in the opposite direction for a million different reasons that you’ll never hear about. But yeah, we know, nobody works hard but you, nobody has any ambition but you, blah blah blah. What a bunch of nonsense.
You might also want to think about the dichotomy of people working “essential” jobs not being paid a living wage. Are you going to step up and flip your own burgers or stock your own shelves at the store or clean up after your disgusting selves? No? Might want to rethink that stupid ass “get a real job” attitude and recognize the fact that anyone who works 40 hours a week or more should be able to afford to pay the rent and buy food for themselved without government assistance. People’s needs aren’t going away whether your jaded ass thinks they’re getting what they deserve or not. Otherwise you can look forward to more people on the welfare roles so some shitbag CEOs can give themselves multi million dollar bonuses at the expense of everyone who pays their taxes, including you. Wake up.
Don’t worry, PullYourself. The authorities have censored my opinion. You are free to move about your bubble unimpeded by any challenges to the groupthink.
@Pullyourself,,,,an education is essential, there are job opportunities for those qualified and want to work. If your goal is to flip burgers of clean others crap that’s a personal decision. Now I’m no fan of shitbag CEO’s but someone has to make an investment in a company, place themselves on the line to start the company.
You can stick your head in the sand and say nuh uh all you want, I can tell from your comments that you haven’t a clue. Education is amazing, please don’t think Im denigrating it at all, but there are plenty of people out there who simply cannot afford one and that price is steadily climbing. I can also tell that you don’t know anyone who did the 4 year college thing and still cannot find a job in their chosen field, they are out there but neither of you would know that because, and no offense here, you’re old. It’s not ageism it’s a simple fact, the amount of young people you likely interact with, or listen to, is directly proportional to the amount of nieces, nephews or grand children you likely have.
Labeling surviving as a choice is hilarious, it’s a choice when you’re 16, when you have no other options due to poverty or straight up lack of ability, it stops being a choice and becomes doing what you need to do in order to have a chance at putting food on your table.
Please don’t think I’m also denigrating CEOs, well, not all of them. It becomes an issue when said CEO is enriching themselves and their cronies at the expense of their workers, denying them the opportunity to make a living wage when the plain fact of the matter is that these companies would not run without these people you’ve so callously labeled bums who’ve made their own beds and now must lie in them. If you think this is a fair system or even, and I can’t help but laugh out loud here, a meritocracy, you’re just plain delusional.
Businesses are crying for skilled trade workers. Those are jobs that you can support your family working a 40 hr week. I worked as a pipe fitter for many years before I went into management. I never worked a 40 hour week. More like 50-60 hours a week. The overtime gave me a good life. Quit going into debt to get a useless low paying job. Get some technical training for the jobs that are waiting.
That’s excellent advice and is definitely a valid option, for some people. Pretending that every Tom, Dick and Harry that works at Walmart or flips burgers for a living can do that is not realistic. Even if they could, and they definitely couldn’t, but even if they could who would do these jobs? It doesn’t matter whether or not in your mind you think the work has value, the fact that you and millions of others utilize these services proves that they do have actual value. I’m not talking about these people being paid 60k a year with full medical and dental but definitely more than 8.75 an hour.
What’s wrong with people getting paid a fair wage for fair work? It boggles the mind that people would actually protest this, it helps everyone when taxpayer money doesn’t have to go to subsidize low paying jobs simply because those further up the totem pole are too greedy to pay their workers, who their business would be impossible without, a living wage.
Well your just full of excuses why some folks cant find a living wage job. If you want to pay McDonalds workers $15 or $20 dollars an hour expect your burger to double in price,,,then you will bitch about that.
And I do know a few 4 year college graduates that cant find work in their chosen field, that political science degree or art degree didn’t really pay off,,who’s fault is that?
I also know people that struggled through school, high school and college who worked hard and succeeded.
Individual choice
You couldn’t be more wrong about burgers doubling in price just look at Seattle, 15$ an hour minimum wage and the sky did not fall. Just like it wouldn’t fall here. And if my 99 cent burger did double to 2$ and everyone gets paid a decent living wage you’d hear no complaints on my end.
I know in your mind everyone who wants to succeed and works hard makes it but reality disagrees. It’s not just your extreme ridiculous examples that can’t find work in their chosen fields, IT professionals, programmers, teachers the list can go on and on.
I know, screw things like fairness or what’s right so you can keep that superior attitude and tell yourself how much better you are than everyone else. Give me a break…
Well I never said or implied I’m better than anyone else,,,,spin away young man,,,,,I know what I’ve seen in the over 40 years I’ve worked. I see people that can’t make it to work on time or miss days during the week on a regular basis,, guess what,, there no longer employed in their chosen field.. I’ve seen people that get hired and can’t follow simple company policies,,,guess what,,there no longer employed in their chosen field. The list definitely goes on and on,,,,,all I stated in the beginning was an education is essential and looking at CMSD graduation rates explains a lot why we have so many burger flippers,,,now if you feel if we just give and give all will be good ,,,well redistribute all your wealth,,,start a business and hire folks,,,but don’t put words into my mouth or spin what I say
Your just looking for people to get handed everything, a utopia let’s say,,well keep dreaming.
Not what I’m after at all, sir or ma’am. What I’m after is fair pay for fair work, what I’m after is wages that keep pace with both the cost of living and inflation, and I’m after that specifically so people DONT NEED handouts. Handouts hurt us all and we wouldn’t have so many people receiving them if we didn’t have such greed and abuse in the system. Corporate welfare needs to die and these people need to pay their workers a living wage or we’ll forever to be doomed to an ever expanding welfare state. I can’t imagine why anyone would be in favor of that as opposed to someone getting a fair wage for their work.
No clue what your tangent on people not following rules has to do with the subject at hand since I’m pretty sure I haven’t advocated for people being able to break the rules willy nilly and still have a job. Those kind of people will rightfully find themselves unemployed but you and I both know that’s not who I was talking about. Everyone in a minimum wage job isn’t a POS bum, no matter what you think.
Keep tilting at those windmills and propping up those strawman arguments though. You just sound like a cranky old dick to be honest.
Name calling is what you stoop to,,,,great . Ok tell me what fair pay for fair work is? Break it down for me,,let’s say a kid in high school flipping burgers, living at home, comfortably, with mom and dad, does he make the same as the mom with 2 kids whose also flipping burgers? What is that wage,,,say 50G per year, full benefits, retirement plan, matching 401k,,,,,break it down for me.
https://www.washington.edu/news/2019/02/06/two-new-studies-published-about-the-seattle-minimum-wage-ordinance/
It’s not as cut and dry as you make it seem.
You’re boring and I’m pretty sure you know exactly what I mean. There’s an old saying, it goes something like this “There’s no way to make a man see when his paycheck, or world view, depends on him not seeing.” I suspect that’s where we’re at when I’m drawn into a long, drawn out argument with someone who’s super worried that someone at the bottom of the food chain might wind up with too much, while not giving a single shit about the people way above the bottom who routinely wind up with too much. If you’re interested in studies, go read some about real world tests of that trickle down economic theory your type loves to blather about, here’s a hint, shit has been a straight up disaster wherever its been implemented. Why not try something else besides catering to the uber wealthy for a change? No matter, there’s another saying “Progress is accomplished one funeral at a time.” That one is usually used in reference to scientific progress but Im pretty sure it holds here as well. Peace2you.
Ok,,,,skirt the question,,,,,your hand has been played. I suggest you take your own advice. Once again you assume, making an ass out of yourself, about my feelings towards those less fortunate or those more fortunate than myself, but that’s all you have,,,name calling and assumptions .
You couldn’t answer the simple scenario I stated above,,,,why,,,,,because it’s not that simple.
Nice playing,,,You lost
I chose not to answer it because it’s as ridiculous as every other scenario that you’ve pontificated on and just as irrelevant.
The takeaway from your last post is that you think this is some sort of contest, which you’ve declared yourself the winner of. Not sure whether that’s funny or just plain sad, probably a bit of both really.
The point remains, as it always has, that we’re all losers while corporate welfare is still a thing and while 6 out of 10 of the MOST COMMON JOBS in Ohio don’t pay a living wage. I’m sure teenagers making too much money is really what we need to worry about though, right moron?
And just for shits and giggles, here’s a simple answer to your simple scenario, ready? If you’re a dependent, you get paid a different wage,unless you’re legally emancipated and nobody can claim you as a dependent, if you’re still claimed as a dependent you make better than 8.75 an hour but not as much as someone who has bills to pay. Simple, done and since most kids these days are still claimed as dependents well into their 20s and since jobs already require this information to begin with it wouldn’t be that hard to implement and it wouldn’t effect a companies bottom line as much as it would if everyone got paid a living wage.
There ya go, scenario answered, now are you gonna change your mind? No? That’s why I didn’t bother to answer any of your scenario questions because you’ll either find something wrong with it or come up with some even more outrageous irrelevant scenario so you can justify keeping the same opinion and tell yourself that you “won” whatever the hell that means.
It’s not an unsolvable problem and everyone will benefit from us figuring it out. Period.
Ok let the discrimination start , ,,you can have more because you failed to get and education, the responsible ones will just get paid less.
Hey just write everyone a check, pay for housing, pay for food, pay for school,,oh wait,,,,we already do that working out great,,,,
What the hell are you even talking about? I specifically answered YOUR scenario about a 16 year old, who hasn’t finished their educatiin, and a single mother whose education level was never specified. Where did I advocate for irresponsibility or discrimination? See why I didn’t bother answering your dumbass scenario questions? You disregard the answer because you don’t personally like it, then move the goal posts and bring up yet another point that has not a thing to do with anything YOU YOURSELF presented.
You fail at debating on the internet, you win nothing. Keep burying your head in the sand, or up your ass or wherever it’s comfortable for you. You and your self righteous attitude is what’s wrong with the world. You think you deserve a monetary pat on the back for supposedly being able to do the right thing your entire life. Entitlement, which is exactly what you’re bitching about. What a ridiculous hypocrite with no empathy for anyone but yourself you are. You lose, good day sir.
Dude just seeing if your still worried about my thoughts,,,lol,,,I actually am for a raise in the minimum wage. I don’t think it’s going to change things much though. I cant see where things will drastically change unless your a Bernie follower,,,,and his stuff ain’t selling. So in the long run those working minimum wage jobs regardless why will unfortunately never make enough to eliminate welfare as we know it.
Enjoy
Good save, kind of. You’re obviously just as concerned about my thoughts so not sure where you’re going with that.
I actually agree, we never will eliminate welfare but, in my opinion, we can drastically reduce the burden on the average taxpayer by having those at the top pay their fair share instead of the federal government picking up the tab.