The majority of the most common jobs in Ohio pay the typical worker less than a living wage, and some pay so little that workers may qualify for assistance such as food stamps, according to a recent report.

The typical, or median, workers in four of the 10 most common jobs in Ohio make under $15 hourly. This was often enough to qualify their families for programs such as food stamps, according to the report by Policy Matters Ohio, the liberal nonprofit policy research institute. The ratio is up from 3 in 10 the year before. The report analyzed 2023 federal Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Eight of the 10 jobs on the list paid under $19.40 an hour

The hourly living wage in Ohio for a single adult with no children is $19.40, according to the Living Wage Calculator by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  A living wage is defined as what an individual must earn working full time to meet their family’s basic needs like housing, food and childcare. (Here are the most common jobs in Greater Cleveland that pay a living wage, which shows how what’s happening here in Cleveland is similar to what’s happening across the state.)

The four lowest-wage jobs in Ohio’s top 10 include fast food and counter workers, which ranked second out of 10. Cashiers came in fifth and retail salespersons sixth. Home health and personal care aides rounded out the top 10.

Two of the top five most common jobs in Ohio were those in which workers would most likely qualify for assistance. The good news is that the two highest paying occupations on the list made the top 5. The general and operations managers classification, which is the most common job in Ohio, had a median hourly wage of $45.14. Registered nurses, which ranked fourth, had a median hourly wage of $38.44.

Groups trying to get $15 minimum wage amendment on the November’s ballot

The four occupations on the list paying under $15 employ 476,000 Ohioans, or 8.7% of all workers in the state, said economist Michael Shields, who authored the report. He said the typical worker in all four occupations had an annual income below 130% of the poverty rate. This comes to $32,318 for a family of three, the threshold for qualifying for programs such as food assistance.

 “These workers are paid wages so low that it leaves them struggling to support their families,” he said.  “We need a policy solution.”

Shields said raising the minimum wage, which is currently $10.45, is one important way to improve the economic lives of these low-wage workers. It is likely that a $15 minimum wage measure will be on November’s ballot. A recently introduced bill in the state legislature seeks to raise the minimum wage to $15.

See:  $15 minimum wage: The differences between Ohio’s competing proposals  

The report also looked at how well Ohio and its metro areas have done at recovering jobs lost during the pandemic.

Employment was up  0.4% in Ohio between February 2020 and February 2023. In Greater Cleveland, it was down 1.4%.

Only three of Ohio’s 11 metro areas have at least regained the jobs they had before the pandemic. They are Columbus, Springfield and Cincinnati.

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