Saturday Stats

$7.25: The subminimum hourly wage for youth under 16 in Ohio. That’s one (awful) reason lawmakers supported S.B. 50, which would have rolled back child labor protections by extending work hours for kids ages 14-15. Last month, the legislature sent the bill to Gov. DeWine, who took his sweet time to consider whether Ohio should encourage the use of child labor to drive down wages for adult workers. Hundreds of Ohioans advocated for him to veto the bill, which he finally did this week.We’re keeping our successful petition posted so you can sign up to receive alerts on attempts to override the veto or introduce similar legislation. (If you already signed, you’ll receive those alerts too!)

4.2M: Number of Americans who will be priced out of the ACA’s Health Insurance Marketplace by 2034 if Congress allows enhanced premium tax credits to expire at the end of this year. Our upcoming virtual town hall on the skyrocketing costs of Marketplace health insurance is for anyone experiencing sticker shock as they consider their options for 2026. Featuring Vaishu Jawahar, Director of Policy Programs withProtect Our Care, the event is at 7pm on December 11th.  Register here.

43 days: Duration of the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history, which ended last month. The shutdown left federal workers without pay and disrupted Ohioans’ access to food assistance, among other crucial public services. We’re certain of those impacts, but others are harder to spot, in part because the shutdown also interrupted the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ regularly scheduled releases of jobs data. This month’s JobWatch makes do with what’s available, including delayed federal data and data from the private sector resulting in some intriguing comparisons.

$13B: Amount allocated for education and workforce development in 2022’s CHIPS and Science Act. The latest issue of CHIPS Ahoy! — our newsletter for the Ohio CHIPS Coalition — takes a closer look at how that funding is being used in other states and finds some ideas we should adopt here.  This issue was written by Policy Matters Summer 2025 Intern Jahari Henry; it’s the fourth issue, and we just keep rolling along: Subscribe to receive Issue 5 as soon as it’s released, and if you haven’t already, check out issues 1, 2, and 3 for more!

5: Number of items on the very reasonable wish list we sent to Santa by way of Cleveland.com last week. Ali Smith gave the Man in Red a simple set of policy recommendations, any or all of which would be gifts to Ohio workers, families, and communities. It’s an excellent way to get into the holiday spirit, and a subtle reminder that it shouldn’t take a Christmas miracle to create an economy that works for all Ohioans.

2026: This coming year will be a time of extraordinary responsibility for Policy Matters Ohio. Will you donate to support our work? Our 2026 priorities include:

• Tackling Ohio’s ongoing tax threat by tracking the impact of the recently enacted flat income tax and fighting for targeted property tax reform that protects needed revenue.
• Protecting public education
• Eliminating unjust fines & fees
• Understanding how state and federal cost shifts are leading to state revenue losses, so that essential services and programs can be protected.
• Taking advantage of every opportunity we can to disrupt, mitigate, document, and make meaning. Donate HERE to help!

Action items:
Register for our virtual town hall on skyrocketing Marketplace health insurance costs. December 11th, 7pm, on Zoom.

Attend the Youth Justice Collaborative’s upcoming Community Conversation on Youth and Community Care on Monday, December 8 from 5pm-7pm at Neighborhood Connections. Email Hannah Christ at CWRU School of Law for more information.

Register to join a Drive to Justice virtual info session and learn about HB 29, which ended thousands of debt-related driver’s license suspension. The next session is December 17 at 12:30pm.