Innovation Ohio

What you need to know about Ohio Politics and Policy

New Report: Mike DeWine’s Overtime Pay Cut Costs Ohio Workers $42 Million Each Year

New Report: Mike DeWine’s Overtime Pay Cut Costs Ohio Workers $42 Million Each Year

Lost Overtime Pay Protections Affect 327,000 Ohioans

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 14, 2018 Columbus, OH — Researchers from the National Employment Law Project Action Fund (NELP Action) and Innovation Ohio released a new report today that enumerates the wages lost by Ohio workers as a result of Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine blocking a federal overtime pay expansion. Overtime pay cuts have cost 327,000 Ohioans $42 million a year in badly-needed higher pay.

The report is available online here. It includes county by county breakdowns of how many local workers are impacted.

“Wall Street and CEO pay are booming but paychecks for working Ohioans haven’t budged. Restoring overtime pay is one of the concrete things we can do to boost middle class incomes – but Mike DeWine made it worse by blocking this badly needed raise,” said Paul Sonn, director of NELP Action and the report’s author.

The report details how Ohio’s next governor and legislature can deliver this long delayed overtime raise as leaders in other states are doing. It includes county by county breakdowns of how many local workers are impacted.

“It’s basic fairness – you should get paid for the hours that you work. But Attorney General Mike DeWine’s lawsuit is keeping 327,000 Ohioans from getting the pay they deserve,” said Innovation Ohio President Janetta King. “It’s imperative that Ohio’s next governor work with the legislature to reverse this setback and ensure that hardworking Ohioans are paid for the work they do.”

NELP Action and Innovation Ohio also released a new video based on the report.

In 2016, the U.S. Labor Department updated federal overtime standards for the first time since 2004 to restore overtime coverage for more middle class workers.  But Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine joined with other states and filed a lawsuit that blocked the overtime expansion. The Trump Labor Department is now holding listening sessions as it develops a weaker, replacement proposal that will protect fewer workers.

The report’s key findings include:

  • Statewide, 327,000 Ohioans lost overtime pay protections as a result of DeWine’s lawsuit
  • Workers in every county across the state lost overtime pay protections.  The largest impacts were 37,000 workers in Franklin County, 34,000 in Cuyahoga County, and 22,000 in Hamilton County
  • Other major impacts include 17,000 in Montgomery County, 16,000 workers in Summit County, 13,000 in Lucas County and 13,000 in Stark County
  • As a result, this year and every year Ohio workers are losing $42 million in higher pay that they would have received under an overtime increase. That’s $42 million in badly needed raises that workers across the state are losing ever year because of the lawsuit brought by DeWine to block the overtime raise.
  • In other states, including California, New York, Washington State and Pennsylvania, governors and state legislatures are responding to the blocked federal overtime pay expansion by acting under state law to deliver this raise
  • Ohio’s next governor and legislature should follow those states’ lead and act quickly to deliver this badly needed overtime raise for the state’s workers
  • Past polling found that Ohio voters support an overtime pay expansion by an overwhelming 80 to 14 percent margin

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Report Shows Ohio Cities are Driving the State’s Economy

The U.S. Conference of Mayors, in partnership with the Ohio Mayors Alliance, released a report last week, “Ohio Metro Economies,” that highlights how Ohio cities and metro areas are the driving force of the state’s economy. According to the data, for almost two decades, Ohio’s metro areas have accounted for all of the state’s job gains and 87 percent of the state’s GDP gains. However, the health and future outlook of the overall statewide economy is not as strong. In the same time frame, most cities and towns across the state experienced net job loss. For Ohio to remain a competitive economy nationally, we need to renew invest in our urban cores and metro area transportation infrastructure. As the report indicates, construction job growth is specifically in the areas of roads and bridges. As we know from previous research, Ohio’s cities need a serious reinvestment in their transportation infrastructure in order for their region, and thus the state of Ohio, to achieve long-term economic growth, as residents are demanding their metro areas be more mobile and accessible. Approximately 2.4 million full-time jobs in Ohio are dependent on the state’s transportation infrastructure, including tourism and retail sales. Additionally, as companies look to re-locate or expand, they take note of the region’s transportation system, looking for areas with smoother, more-efficient transportation infrastructure. This lack of investment in our cities, both in targeted economic development projects and money towards workforce development and infrastructure, has caused our young residents to flee towards Sun Belt states, leaving Ohio’s workforce older and aging.  This cycle of underinvestment will lead to an economic downturn when there is both a shrinking supply of workers and low demand for the goods and services produced in the state. Cities are the engines of Ohio’s economic growth. Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland each ranked in the top 100 largest economies in the world, exceeding the states of Montana and Arkansas. For Ohio to remain competitive nationally, in this new service-oriented economy, we need to create a strong, diversified, metro-focused statewide economy. Ohio will not grow without mindful, aggressive investment in its cities and surrounding metro regions. For more information, you can read the full report on the Ohio Mayors Alliance website.

In October, Ohio’s economy continued to lag rest of nation

New data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) paints a picture of a continued stall in Ohio’s economy. BLS and Ohio Jobs and Family Services found that not only did Ohio’s unemployment rate tick up to 7.5%, but that compared to October, 2012, in October, Ohio grew jobs by a dismal .53%.  Over the last year, North Dakota led all states by growing 3.53 percent while Ohio ranked 44th – only five other states grew more slowly over the last 12 months. [dciframe]http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/Oct_JobGrowth/Dashboard1?:embed=y&:display_count=no,600,800,0,auto,align:left;[/dciframe] [Read more…]

Report: Ohio’s Energy Standards Save Consumers Millions, Create Thousands of Jobs

images (6) New research from The Ohio State University finds that Ohio’s renewable energy and energy efficiency standards are responsible for the creation of over 3,200 jobs and saving Ohio electricity consumers over $300 million a year. In addition, the report found that if current efforts to repeal Ohio’s renewable standards were to pass consumers will be expected to pay $3.65 billion more in energy costs over the next 12 years. Ohio’s renewable energy and energy efficiency standards went into effect in 2008 and require utilities to generate 25 percent of their electricity from renewable energy and advanced energy technologies by 2025. The law also aims to reduce energy consumption by 22 percent by 2015 by focusing on energy efficiency gains.  The OSU report is especially timely considering that just last week Ohio State Senator Bill Seitz introduced legislation that effectively guts the law that has successfully created thousands of jobs, saved Ohio consumers millions of dollars, and improved public health. Just last year, the report estimates the law saved consumers $190 million through energy efficiency savings alone. For 2008 to 2012, electricity users realized electricity savings of $230 million due to the law. The report also found that investments in advanced energy technologies were creating real economic gains in Ohio. These new investments created $160 million in economic growth in 2012 and created 3,200 new Ohio jobs between 2008 and 2012. The report forecasts significant economic benefits over the next 12 years for Ohio consumers and Ohio workers, assuming the law goes unchanged. Estimates include the creation of over 3,000 new jobs, lower electricity prices, and lower electricity demand due to the law staying on the books. The report found that if Republicans in the legislature are able to change the law it will have significant impacts on consumers bills.  The report found that if proposed changes were successfully passed, electricity bills will climb by 3.9 percent which translates into an increase of $3.65 billion over the next 12 years, with an average increase of $300 million per year. Ohio’s renewable energy standards have been a key economic development tool for Ohio and lawmakers should think long and hard before they consider doing away with them. Gutting the state’s renewable energy requirements and energy efficiency standards will cost Ohioans millions in increased electricity bills, destroy jobs, and push this budding industry out of Ohio and into other states.

Ohio’s unemployed rate ticks up, now matches national rate

US and Ohio UE RatesAs you may have seen in news accounts over the weekend, Ohio’s unemployment rate ticked up in August to 7.3 percent. That is above July’s rate of 7.2 percent and equal to the national rate of 7.3 percent for August.

August marks the first time in almost three years that Ohio’s unemployment matches the national unemployment rate. In November, 2010 the national unemployment rate was 9.8 percent and Ohio’s was 9.4 percent. Since that month, Ohio’s unemployment rate was below the national rate for the next 33 months.

Ohio’s unemployment rate started to creep up in the beginning of 2013. Ohio’s unemployment rate in December, 2012 was 6.7 percent – since then the rate has risen over the course of the last eight months while at the same time the national rate continued to slowly decrease. As we pointed out on Friday, the Kasich administration and its allies have spent months trying to push the idea that Ohio is experiencing some type of economic miracle – a supposed miracle stemming from their policies of cutting tax rates that mostly benefit the wealthy and slashing funding for public services like local governments and education. In reality, these policies have led to Ohio being ranked 46th in job creation and doing nothing to lower the state’s high unemployment rate. With lawmakers returning to work this week in Columbus, it is time that they consider policies that will offer real change and opportunities for Ohioans still looking to recover from the last economic downturn.

August jobs numbers are, once again, unimpressive for Ohio

Job growth in Ohio continues to grow at an anemic rate, according to the latest jobs numbers from the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services. When comparing August, 2012 to August, 2013 Ohio added 32,500 jobs, for a growth rate of .63 percent. Ohio continues to rank 46th in job growth in the nation- only Oklahoma, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Alaska performed worse over this last year. North Dakota continues to lead the nation with a 3.02 percent growth rate mostly due to an economy being driving by unique natural resources specific to that state. [dciframe]http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/Aug_JobGrowth/Dashboard1?:embed=y&:display_count=no,540,800,0,auto,align:left;[/dciframe] Compared to neighboring state’s Ohio’s economy continues to fall behind. Indiana lead the group with a growth rate of 1.74 percent but Michigan was not far behind by expanding 1.68 percent over the last year. Jobs expanded by a rate of 1.17 percent in Kentucky, .99 percent in West Virginia, and Pennsylvania came in one spot above Ohio with a rate of .68 percent. What started off as a single episode has now become a trend. For several months it has been clear that Ohio’s economy is barely sputtering along which is a dramatic difference from the economic recovery the Kasich administration inherited. While this administration can continue to insist that there is some type of Ohio miracle happening the reality of the situation is totally different.  Soon, lawmakers will have to realize that their policies of giving tax cuts to the wealthy while cutting funding to schools and local governments is not a path toward economic growth.

Ohio working women fared better than men during the recession

Last week, the Associated Press examined employment trends since the recession and found that nationally, women have regained the jobs they lost during the Great Recession. Over 68 million women are currently employed, back above the 67.97 million women with jobs before the start of the recession in December, 2007. Men, by contrast, still have 2.1 million jobs to go. We were intrigued to see if the same trends were evident in Ohio. As monthly data at the state level does not tally employment by gender, we looked at full year data from 2007, 2009, and 2012; 2007 representing the period before the recession, 2009 representing the peak year of the recession, and 2012 being the most recent available data. Unlike their national peers, Ohio women (and men) have a long way to go toward employment at pre-recession levels. In 2012, 2.5 million women in Ohio were employed compared to 2.7 million before the downturn. Given the slow growth in job creation displayed this past year, it’s unlikely we’ll return to pre-recession employment levels when data for 2013 becomes available. [Read more…]

Ohio continues to lag nation in job growth

Ohio’s stagnant job growth continued through July.  According to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Ohio ranks 46th in the nation in year-to-year job growth when comparing July, 2012 to July, 2013. Compared to other states, Ohio’s continues to rank in the bottom five of all states for yearly job growth. On a year-to-year basis, Ohio’s job growth rate was a minuscule .73 percent in July. Only four states –Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Alaska – added jobs at a slower rate during the same time period. [Read more…]

Ohio job growth has stalled over past 12 months

News reports around the recently June employment figures have focused on Ohio’s loss of 12,5000 jobs, an Innovation Ohio Education Fund analysis released this morning points to a more disturbing, long-term trend. Over the course of the last year, employment gains have nearly stalled and Ohio has fallen behind nearly every other state in job creation. Specifically:
  • Ohio ranks 47th nationally in job growth over the last 12 months – only Wyoming, Main, and Alaska performed worse;
  • In the last year, Ohio’s economy only added 16,000 new jobs – a growth rate of only 0.3 percent;
  • Over the past 12 months, Ohio added jobs at just one-seventh the rate it did the year earlier.

stalled job growth

Despite aggressive cheerleading to convince Ohioans otherwise, the data hardly show the “Ohio miracle” that Governor Kasich likes to talk about. Read the analysis here. Read the press release.

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