FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 4, 2005
CONTACT: Amy Hanauer, 216 931-9922
Ohio wages
not keeping pace with productivity, education
and hour increases
New State of Working Ohio finds median
wage declines for fourth straight year
Output per U.S. worker
has soared by 78 percent since 1973, Ohioans’
higher education levels leapt more than 65
percent since 1979, and median U.S. two-parent
families have increased work hours by 18.4
percent since 1979.
Yet median household income fell for the
second straight year and median hourly wages
for Ohio workers fell for the fourth straight
year in 2004, according to the State of
Working Ohio 2005 a new report from Policy
Matters Ohio embargoed for the Sunday before
Labor Day.
“Despite becoming
more educated and more productive, and working
much more than a generation ago, Ohio workers
are facing job loss, median wage decline,
income and benefit erosion, rising inequality
and enduring poverty,” said Amy Hanauer,
report author and Policy Matters Executive
Director. “Understanding what has gone wrong
in our economy is the first step toward fixing
it.” The report, which describes wages, job
growth, unemployment, disparities and other
trends facing Ohio workers also found:
¨
As of
July 2005, Ohio employment levels remained
156,900 jobs or 2.8 percent below where it was
when the recession began in March 2001.
This put
Ohio among the worst four states in terms of
job growth, and well behind the nation. This
growth is anemic by historic standards; At
this point (52 months) after the early 1990s
recession started, 237,800 jobs had been
created in Ohio, an increase of 4.9 percent.
¨
Between 2000 and 2004, Ohio lost 19.2 percent
of its manufacturing jobs. For much of 2005,
Ohio’s manufacturing employment levels were at
their lowest point in decades. Ohio and
Michigan are distinguished, however, from the
nation and other neighboring states in that
they experienced net job losses between 2000
and 2004 in all non-manufacturing industries
combined. Most states gained in these other
sectors.
¨
The
typical Ohio wage has been sinking since 2000
– inflation-adjusted wages dropped in each of
the last four years. By 2004, Ohio’s median
hourly wage was $13.37, lower than at any
point since 1998 and lower than the 1979
level, though higher than in the 1980s and
early 1990s.
¨
Men
($15.12) continue to earn significantly (30
percent) more than women ($11.66) at the
median in Ohio and the median white Ohio
worker earns 19 percent more than the median
black worker each hour, nearly double the ten
percent gap in 1979. While the gender gap has
narrowed over the long term, women’s wages
have declined for the last two years and are
now lower than at any point since 1999.
¨ Ohio
employers are more likely than national
employers to provide health insurance, but
rates of insurance provision have dropped over
the past 20 years. Ohio rates fell from just
over 75 percent in the early 1980s, to just 60
percent in the most recent period.
¨
Just
half of Ohio workers (51.4 percent) have
access to any type of employer-provided
retirement plan, compared to just 46.2 percent
of U.S. workers. These coverage rates are down
from an Ohio rate of 58.7 percent and a U.S.
rate of 49.8 percent in 1979. Because the
statistics combine all types of pension plans,
quality changes are not reflected here.
¨
Median
household income, which has risen over the
long term, has recently slumped in Ohio and
nationally. In Ohio, 2004 median income was
lower than in 2003 and lower than in any year
since 1997, according to new CPS numbers
released Tuesday August 30.
¨
The
Ohio unemployment rate exceeded six percent in
2003 for the first time since 1993 and
remained that high until the monthly rate for
July 2005 (subject to future correction)
dipped a bit below six percent. In 2004, the
annual unemployment rate was 6.3 percent.
¨
Other
measures of employment hardship are elevated.
The share of the unemployed who have been
jobless for over six months climbed again in
2004 to 21.4 percent, from a previous 20-year
high. In each of the past four years, fewer
Ohio jobless have qualified for unemployment
benefits. By 2004, less than one in three
(30.7 percent) of those without work were
still getting benefits, compared to 36.2
percent of U.S. workers.
¨
More
than 60 percent of Ohio workers earn less per
hour than those at a similar point on the
earnings spectrum earned in 1979. The 80th
and 90th percentiles (the top 20
percent of earners) are the only categories to
have seen solid wage growth over this period.
¨
Inequality grew in Ohio, but it grew at a
faster pace and from a higher starting point
nationally. The 90th percentile
Ohio worker earned 3.38 times more hourly than
the 10th percentile Ohio worker in
1979, but 4.18 times more by 2004, compared to
4.41 times as much nationally. While
inequality skyrocketed over the long term, it
also grew recently, including between 2003 and
2004.
¨
One in
four Ohio workers earns less than $9.28 an
hour, insufficient to bring a family of four
above the official 2004 poverty level
of $19,311
with full-time, year-round work.
The rate has
climbed from its recent low of 21.9 percent in
2002.
¨
The
percent of Ohioans living under the official
poverty line rose from 9.8 percent to 11.6
percent between 1980 and 2004. Children were
more likely to be poor than adults and that
indicator rose to 17.1 percent in Ohio in
2004. A four-person family was under the
official poverty line in 2004 if income was
less than $19,157. Twice the poverty level is
a more meaningful measure of need than the
exceedingly low poverty line, and 28.5 percent
of all Ohioans and 36.4 percent of Ohio
children were under this threshold in 2004
(about $38,314 for a family of four),
according to new data released on Aug. 30.
“If we want Ohio to
be a national leader in wages and well-being,
instead of in bankruptcies and job loss, we
need visionary new solutions,” said Hanauer.
“We must invest in education, make strategic
energy investments that revitalize Ohio
manufacturing, restore tax fairness and ensure
an adequate public sector. The failed policies
we’ve been pursuing are taking us in the wrong
direction.”
Policy Matters Ohio is a
non-profit, non-partisan policy research
institute with offices in Cleveland and
Columbus. This report, and other research from
the institute, is available at
http://www.policymattersohio.org
