Report: Ohio wage hikes can’t keep up with inflation

A new report shows a massive dump of federal taxpayer dollars into Ohio following the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2021 recession led to the largest wage increase in more than 40 years, but it wasn’t enough for workers to keep up with the “effective” rate of inflation.

Policy Matters Ohio’s State of Working Ohio report, scheduled to be released Tuesday afternoon, showed the federal COVID-19 recovery plan put Ohioans back to work at a level with prerecession numbers and gave jobseekers their pick of potential jobs.

However, the report also showed that families face a higher effective rate of inflation with little to no discretionary income, and larger amounts of money must be spent on groceries and housing.

“Smart, large-scale federal investments have put working people at the center of the ongoing recovery,” said Hannah Halbert, executive director and the report’s lead author. “Wage gains may appear larger on paper than they feel for many Ohio families, even as inflation cools. If policymakers in D.C. and Columbus want to continue building toward shared prosperity, they need to focus on tax and budget policies that make it easier for working people and families to afford the cost of living — and the cost of going to work.”

Grocery prices rose 21.1% from 2021 through 2023, and home values increased 58% from the end of 2018 through 2023.

The report says the state’s median wage in 2023 was $23.95 an hour, up $1.55 over 2022. It’s the largest annual increase in the median wage since tracking began in 1979.

The number of jobseekers per open job fell to 0.9 through 2022 and 2023, down from a peak of 5.3 in 2021.

In May 2024, the state posted the largest job today in history, and in July 2023, Ohio’s unemployment rate hit a record low of 3.3%.

Since then, however, the unemployment rate has slowly increased, currently standing at 4.5%.