Most common Ohio jobs pay too little to get by
Last year, eight of the 10 most common occupations in Ohio paid their median worker less than the cost of living for an Ohio family of three. Four paid so little that that family would qualify for and need food assistance. In seven of those occupations, employers cut wages as a share of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL).
These are among the findings in Still working for too little in Ohio, Policy Matters Ohio’s annual review of Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report includes analyses of data from each of Ohio’s 12 Metropolitan Statistical Areas: (MSAs) Akron, Canton-Massillon, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton-Kettering-Beavercreek, Lima, Mansfield, Sandusky, Springfield, Toledo, and Youngstown-Warren. MSA-specific factsheets and analysis are also available.
Out of 5.5 million jobs in Ohio in 2024, 82.3% were in occupations that paid the median worker less than $79,622: the amount determined by the Economic Policy Institute to represent a “modest yet adequate standard of living” for a small family in Ohio. This includes the most common occupation in the state — Fast Food and Counter Workers — where employers cut wages by 1.2% as a share of the FPL even as they added 26,890 more jobs.
“Good news about employment numbers isn’t necessarily good news for workers,” said Policy Matters researcher Heather Smith, author of the report. “Ohio has recovered the number of jobs lost during the pandemic, but many of them pay poorly, and many have moved: Only Columbus and Cincinnati have more jobs in 2024 than they did in 2019.”
Policymakers have options to ensure that more Ohio jobs pay enough to get by — and enough to keep working families and young people from leaving the state for better opportunities elsewhere. “Legislators should use state budget negotiations to advance pro-worker policies, including more support for childcare, so more Ohioans can afford to go to work; a higher minimum wage; better support for labor unions and workers’ right to organize; and continued regulation of child labor,” Smith said.