When Cleveland’s resurrected Fair Employment Wage Board was looking for a consultant, several people told John Ryan it was an assignment tailored for him.
Ryan headed the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor before serving as state director for former U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.
They also told Ryan that serving as consultant would be a sort of poetic justice.
In 2001, Ryan successfully lobbied council to pass legislation that formed the board. The board wouldn’t have its first meeting until 2024 with newly appointed members. (He, like most others, including Mayor Justin Bibb’s administration, doesn’t know why the board never met.)
Ryan submitted a competitive bid this year and was chosen as consultant. He said that a major reason he applied is that he views council and the administration as being serious about helping workers. Council has passed a wage theft law that bars companies that cheat workers out of pay from holding city contracts. It raised the fair employment wage for the first time in 17 years, setting a $15.85-an-hour floor for city employee salaries and workers for city contractors.
“This group of City Council members, the mayor and the administration are more protective of workers than any I have seen in all of my years of doing work protecting workers,” he said.
As consultant, Ryan will advise the board in working with the administration in enforcing the wage theft and fair employment laws. He’ll also advise them on the new pay equity and transparency law that bans employers from asking job applicants about their salary history.
Ryan doesn’t see it as sweet revenge to have a role in shaping the board he always wanted.
“In some ways, it’s like that old Woody Allen movie, ‘Sleeper,’ the guy comes back after 200 years and there’s a Volkswagen bug and it works.”
That’s way more than 25 years, but you get the point.
