0.9: As of May 2024, the number of job seekers for every job in Ohio. That’s an indication of the worker-friendly job market that has given Ohioans more leverage to demand better pay and benefits. Of course, high inflation rates have eaten into those wage gains, especially for workers whose employers pay them poorly.

21.1%: Amount by which grocery prices increased from 2021-23. People with low incomes spend a greater share of that income on necessities like groceries. As a result, they face a higher effective rate of inflation: a measure of how price changes actually impact individual households.

16%: Amount by which the median wage for union workers exceeded that of non-union workers in 2023. That’s a difference of $3.74 per hour. For a full-time, year-round worker, that union premium adds up to $7,780 a year.

$60: Average per-person spending by states to fund their public transit systems.

$6: Per-person spending by Ohio to fund our public transit system. We’re badly underfunding one of the key components of the clean energy transition, as described in Ohio’s roadmap to clean transportation, the latest report from Molly Bryden.

568K: Number of unemployment claims incorrectly flagged as fraudulent by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services as it caught up on reviewing claims filed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. This kind of administrative foul-up is all but inevitable when state legislators zero-out the state’s share of funding for administering the system, as explained in The moral case for funding unemployment compensation, by Michael Shields. It’s the second in our blog series on the budget as a moral document. (Also check out the first, The moral case for funding higher education, by Tanisha Pruitt, PhD.)

Watchlist

HB 590: This bill creates the Hunger-Free Campus grant program, which will support efforts by Ohio colleges and universities to combat food insecurity for students. This is good policy; legislators should make it law. If they fail to do so, it should be included in the next state budget. We explain why in our budget recommendations for the Dept. of Higher Education.

HB 595: This bill would require all school districts to create or contract with providers to create half-day preschool programs by 2029. Districts would be permitted to charge tuition until the Fair School Funding Plan (FSFP) is fully implemented, at which point preschool will be funded as part of the public school system. (If the legislature lives up to the promises of the FSFP, it will be fully funded by 2026.) This is good policy; legislators should make it law. If they fail to do so, it should be included in the next state budget. We explain why in our budget recommendations for the Dept. of Children & Youth.

Action items

Watch Executive Director Hannah Halbert at the Columbus Metropolitan Club for a panel discussion, Confronting the Gender Data Gap.