by J.D. Davidson
Nearly half of the most popular jobs in Ohio pay the average worker so little employees qualify for government assistance to feed a family of three, a new report based on information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows.
The findings in the Still working for too little in Ohio report from Policy Matters Ohio also showed that those four occupations employ 476,000 or 8.7% of all workers in the state.
All that comes as pay is rising in eight of the 10 most common jobs in the state.
“More Ohio workers are finally securing better pay for their work after decades of rising productivity but stagnant compensation,” report author Michael Shields said. “But that progress hasn’t been enough to turn low-paid jobs into good ones. Only two of the 10 most common jobs pay enough to qualify a family of three as ‘economically stable.”
The state’s top 10 jobs in terms of employment were general and operations managers, fast food and counter workers, stockers and order fillers, registered nurses, cashiers, retail salesperson, laborers and freight, stock, material movers, customer service representative, miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators and home health and personal care aides.
The state’s top job – general and operations manager – was one of the two that saw wages drop, falling by 17% but still holding the highest median pay at $93,880.
The report showed 143,080 Ohioans held that position in 2023.
Customer service representative, which had 99,090 positions, was the other job that lost pay in 2023, a dip of 1%.
Four jobs produced median annual pay that left workers qualified for government assistance, include fast food and counter workers, which saw a 19% pay increase but the median annual pay of $27,370 remained 110% of the federal poverty level.
There are 140,760 fast food and counter workers in the state.
Cashiers (122,370 workers), retail salesperson (120,500) and home health and personal care aides (91,890) all qualified for government help.
“Of the four top 10 occupations paying below the level of food subsistence, three of yet to restore 2019 job levels: fast food workers, retail salespeople and home health aides,” the report said.
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An Ohio native, J.D. Davidson is a veteran journalist with more than 30 years of experience in newspapers in Ohio, Georgia, Alabama and Texas. He has served as a reporter, editor, managing editor and publisher. Davidson is a regional editor for The Center Square.
