New study: Ohio can afford a higher minimum wage

Washington, D.C. – A new report on the Ohio minimum wage will be released tomorrow via conference call by the Center for American Progress and Policy Matters Ohio. The report finds that increased productivity and profits provide room for a minimum wage increase in Ohio.

According to the report; Ohio worker productivity, Ohio executive compensation and national corporate profits have all risen steeply in inflation-adjusted terms in the past few years, while the minimum wage has declined in real terms, the median wage has stagnated, and the average wage has grown at a snail’s pace.

WHO: John Burton, Research Associate at the Center for American Progress
Amy Hanauer, Executive Director of Policy Matters Ohio

Biographies:

John Burton is research associate at the Center for American Progress, where he works in the Economic Policy Department. Before joining the Center, John was a research associate at the Council on African American Affairs, and an economist at America’s Community Bankers. A native of Miami, Florida, John graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 2001.

Amy Hanauer is the founding Executive Director of Policy Matters Ohio, a non-profit, non-partisan policy research institute dedicated to examining issues that matter to working families in Ohio. Since the group started in January of 2000, Policy Matters has produced more than twelve dozen reports, generated more than 1,500 newspaper stories, and begun to change the economic debate in Ohio. Amy has a Master’s of Public Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BA from Cornell University. She has previously done research and policy work in Wisconsin, Colorado and Washington D.C. Amy is on the board of trustees of Demos, and on the advisory board for the national Economic Analysis and Research Network. For Policy Matters, in addition to running the organization, Amy does research on work, wages, tax policy, energy policy and other issues.