Saturday Stats: Feeling 2022
Posted January 07, 2022 in Press Releases
322: That was ratio of CEO to typical employee pay at 54 of Ohio’s 100 biggest employers in 2020, according a new report from Michael Shields and intern Jenny Driscoll. Fifteen employers on the list pay the typical worker less than $26,500 a year. In recent decades, corporate boards have increased CEO pay at rates that dramatically exceed pay increases for typical workers. Most recently, corporations like Walmart and Kroger have been lavishing CEOs with exorbitant pay while putting frontline employees at risk of COVID-19 without proper compensation. Hannah Halbert told News 5 in Cleveland that it’s time to rebalance the tax code and make ultra-wealthy CEOs pay what they owe.
Nearly $4: Ohio’s minimum wage is worth nearly $4 less than it was in 1968 — $13 in today’s dollars. That’s even after the wage adjusted from $8.80 an hour to $9.30 on January 1st, thanks to voters who raised the wage and pegged it to inflation in 2006. Michael wrote in Cleveland.com that policymakers should raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour.
3,900: All children deserve stability, security and the opportunity to live to their fullest potential. However, the state of Ohio is denying 3,900 children placed with relatives — known as kinship caregivers — federally mandated financial support to provide children with food, clothing, health care and other essentials. Policy Matters and our partners filed a legal brief in support of a lawsuit to compel the state to fairly support kinship families, who are more likely to be Black or brown. When Ma’Khia Bryant first entered foster care, the county placed her and her siblings with their grandmother. But after their grandmother couldn’t afford housing, the county placed them in foster homes — which is where Ma’Khia was living when she was shot and killed by police. Will Petrik and others wrote in the Columbus Dispatch that Ma’Khia’s tragic story is a dramatic illustration of the urgent need to properly support both licensed foster care providers and kinship caregivers.
17: The Economic Policy Institute found that the 17 states with the highest concentration of union members have significantly fewer barriers to voting. So while most of us knew unions make employers pay working people better and keep workplaces safer, they also make our democracy stronger, too!
Coming up:
There’s a lot going on with the ReImagine Appalachia coalition! Join our partners for their 2022 strategy summit on January 11 and 12 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.