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For a more prosperous, equitable, sustainable and inclusive Ohio |
Report requested by governor also says tax overhaul will boost gross state product
By William Hershey
Dayton Daily News
COLUMBUS | Gov. Bob Taft’s plan to overhaul the state’s tax system would lead to the creation of an additional 43,250 jobs and a $2.5 billion boost in the gross state product by 2010, according to a report released Thursday.
Columbus Dispatch
by Mark Niquette
Cutting Ohio s income tax and making other tax changes Gov. Bob Taft
proposes would create more than 43,000 new jobs in five years and spur economic
growth, a state-funded study released yesterday shows.
Taft critics disagree
By John Byczkowski
Cincinnati Enquirer
Gov. Bob Taft’s proposed commercial activity tax would kill more than 15,000 jobs and sap Ohio of more than $1 billion in gross state product, according to a new analysis of the plan released Thursday by the Ohio Department of Development.
Prentiss to raise the standard minimum wage to $6.15 an hour beginning January 1, 2006
Gongwer News Service
Sen. Prentiss said the state minimum hourly wage of $4.25 per hour has not been increased since 1990, making Ohio one of only two states with a minimum wage lower than the federal rate of $5.15 per hour. The state minimum wage would grow to $6.15 on January 1, 2006, and to $7.15 per hour in 2007. The Director of Commerce then would be required to adjust the wage rate annually based on the rate of inflation for the previous 12 months. “This inflationary factor corrects what should have been done in the first place,” Sen. Prentiss said. She said 15 other states already have enacted laws mandating a minimum wage exceeding the federal rate. Sen. Prentiss rejected arguments that boosting the minimum wage costs jobs. “In 1999 the President’s Council of Economic Advisers concluded the modest increases in the minimum wage have had very little or no effect on employment,” she said. Sen. Prentiss contrasted practices of Wal-Mart-”the archetype low-wage employer”-with that of Costco, which starts workers at $10 an hour and pays an average of $15.97. “This big box discount store has lower turnover, higher productivity and less theft than Sam’s Club with its lower average wages,” Sen. Prentiss said.
“It is my belief that in the long run companies who pay a fair wage profit because they have lower turnover rates, decreased absenteeism, improved morale, and greater worker productivity,” Sen. Prentiss said. The comparison prompted a question from Chairman Hottinger: “If that is indeed the case…why does not Wal-Mart on their own raise their wage rate?” Sen. Prentiss said she was unsure, but that government winds up subsidizing low-wage employers because their workers qualify for food stamps, childcare and other assistance. Sen. Armbruster noted there was no provision in the bill to deal with the underground economy in which employers do not pay into Social Security or workers’ compensation. “That second or third job is under the table. These employees and employers skate,” he said. Sen. Prentiss acknowledged the bill does not deal with the matter. “What we’re really talking about is business persons scamming the system. I don’t know how to catch them,” she said. Chairman Hottinger scheduled proponent testimony on the measure for May 17th.
The Toledo Blade
By Julie M. McKinnon
Nearly 450,000 Ohioans – including 297,000 women – would benefit from a state senator’s proposal to raise the
state’s minimum wage to $7.15 an hour by 2007, according to a study released yesterday.
The $7.15 rate is $2 more than the lowest allowed under federal law.
More than a third of Ohio households with members making less than $7.15 an hour rely solely on that earner’s
wages, and nearly all of them have children, according to Policy Matters Ohio, which released the study yesterday
to coincide with legislative testimony from state Sen. C.J. Prentiss.
The Cleveland Democrat, a founding board member of the Cleveland think tank that did the study, sponsored a bill
to raise the state minimum wage to $7.15 an hour beginning in 2007.
It also calls for subsequent annual cost-of-living increases. But prospects for passage are not considered strong.
Some local employers, and even employees, say some businesses would struggle if they have to pay all employees
that rate.
A higher state minimum wage would take precedence over the wage set by federal law, said Amy Hanauer,
executive director of Policy Matters.
Connie Stubleski, owner of Connie’s restaurant in Toledo, said she pays dishwashers and waitresses less than $7.15
an hour. Her business was hurt by Toledo’s smoking ban, and she’s not prepared to increase wages, she said.
“I’m sure the employees would like it,” Ms. Stubleski said. “I’m not going to give anybody a raise.”
Ohio is one of two states nationwide where the state minimum, at $4.25 an hour, is less than the federal minimum of
$5.15 an hour.
But the federal minimum wage applies to all Ohio firms engaging in interstate commerce or grossing more than
$500,000 a year, so fewer than 92,000 Ohioans make less than the federal minimum, according to the Policy
Matters study.
Legislators and activists have tried to raise Ohio’s minimum wage for years. Grassroots organizers likely will try to
place a minimum-wage amendment on the November ballot if the Senate bill sponsored by Ms. Prentiss does not
pass, according to Policy Matters.
Voters in Florida and Nevada passed ballot measures increasing those states’ minimum wage rates, but the Nevada
measure requires a second approval. Momentum among such states bodes well for Ohio, Ms. Hanauer said.
A higher minimum wage also would affect employees now making $7.15 to $8.15 an hour, the Ohio study
concluded, because employers probably would bump up those wages to maintain the separation from the lowest
paid.
Many of Ohio’s lowest-paid workers have restaurant or retail jobs, and others work in child care centers, libraries,
and other businesses, the study said. More than 70 percent of Ohioans making less than $7.15 an hour are at least 20
years old.
One full-time employee at a Woodville Mall store said she makes $6 an hour, which helps supplement her Social
Security checks and her husband’s factory income.
Also at the mall, a full-time manager at a restaurant in the food court said she makes $7.25 an hour after four years
there, just $1.25 an hour more than part-time employees.
Both women, who declined to be identified, said they believe their employers would pay more if they could afford
to and said they understand their employers’ situations.
“If this mall was more busy, it would help us a lot,” said the restaurant manager, a single mother of two who has
struggled to find work.
The Ohio Restaurant Association, meanwhile, is opposed to raising the minimum wage on grounds that it would
hamper owners’ ability to grow and to hire more employees, said Tom Withgott, the association’s government
affairs director.
Full Article (PDF version)
State senator proposes level reaches $7.15 per hour by January 2007
By Mandy Zatynski
Dayton Daily News
COLUMBUS | A state senator repeatedly called Ohio’s minimum wage “unconscionable” on
Wednesday as she urged lawmakers to support her proposal to increase the wage to $7.15 per hour by January 2007.
Business First of Columbus
The value of the minimum wage has fallen to its lowest point since 1989 and ought to be raised, according to a Cleveland think tank.
The Hannah Report
Senate Minority leader C.J. Prentiss (D-Cleveland) gave sponsor testimony and held a press conference Tuesday to ask the Legislature to raise Ohio’s minimum wage.
The Hannah Report
Four years after the recession began in March 2001, Ohio employment is down 179,700, or 3.2 percent, according to the latest seasonally adjusted payroll numbers issued April 15 by the Ohio Department of Job & Family Services (ODJFS).
Four years after the recession began, Ohio is down 179,700 jobs
Four years after the recession began in March 2001, Ohio employment is down 179,700, or 3.2 percent, according to the latest seasonally adjusted payroll numbers issued April 15 by the Ohio Department of Job & Family Services. At this point after the early 1990s recession started, 167,800 nonfarm wage and salary jobs had been created in Ohio, an increase of 3.4 percent.
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