Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted was named director of the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation, a role he will take on in addition to his capacity as director of InnovateOhio.
Gov. Mike DeWine announced the appointment during a Thursday Cabinet meeting, saying he was “pleased” to have Husted “serve as the point person for Ohio’s workforce development efforts.”
“It is so important that we continue to invest in our state’s most valuable asset—our workforce, and Lt. Gov. Husted will ensure that our efforts in this area are focused and deliver results,” DeWine said, according to a press release.
In his new role, Husted will oversee 75 different workforce development programs across 12 state agencies, and will report directly to the governor. The position was previously occupied by Ryan Burgess, but he stepped down after being appointed director of cabinet affairs for DeWine.
“Ohio’s economy has a lot of things working in its favor right now, but if we are going to reach our full potential and make our state more attractive to new businesses, we have to close our skills gap,” said Husted, who worked as vice president of the Dayton-area Chamber of Commerce before entering public office.
“If we get this right, we will give job creators the talent they need to expand and we’ll give Ohioans more personal opportunity and the chance to grow their career,” he added.
As The Ohio Star reported, Husted’s role of overseeing InnovateOhio allowed him to take a $176,426 salary in lieu of the lieutenant governor’s $113,900 salary. The pay increase was made possible under a December 2018 bill. The bill stated that “if the governor appoints the lieutenant governor as an administrative department head or as the head of an office within the office of the governor,” he may “accept the salary for that office while serving as its head.”
Technically, this means Husted can accept the salary for whichever of his three roles pays the highest—lieutenant governor, director of InnovateOhio, or director of workforce transformation. It doesn’t appear that his new position will come with a pay raise.
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of Battleground State News, The Ohio Star, and The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Background Photo “Jon Husted” by Jon Husted.
