Who Makes $5.15 an Hour? Fewer Ohio Workers Each Year, Statistics Show

The Wal-Mart greeter.

The landscape worker.

The short-order cook.

The grocery store cashier.

These employees often are lumped together with thousands of others when government officials discuss raising the minimum wage.

But in reality, fewer and fewer workers make such a low wage, statistics show. Many employers simply can't afford to pay minimum wage. Their workers won't stick around long if they do, some economists and business owners said.

The Akron McDonald's franchise operates 23 stores in the area. Not one store has an average wage below $6.65 an hour, said Sallie Long, community rela-tions representative for the franchise. Only a few high school-age employees at the restaurants make minimum wage, she said.

Wal-Mart, the largest employer in Ohio, doesn't pay any employee minimum wage, said Dan Fogleman, a spokesman for the company. Wal-Mart's average full-time hourly employee nationwide makes $10.11, Fogleman said.

In Ohio, 26,000 people made minimum wage last year. More widely, 111,000 people worked at or below the minimum wage, down from 125,000 in 2004, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The larger numbers include restaurant workers who make about $2.15 an hour plus tips.

Overall, that means less than 2 percent of the workers employed in Ohio worked at or below the minimum wage of $5.15 an hour last year.

In 1995, fewer than 2 million people worked at the federal minimum wage, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Ten years later, the total was fewer than 500,000.

Part of the decrease in federal minimum wage earners can be attributed to a number of state increases in the wage.

Ohio has ascribed to the federal minimum wage (or below) for years, and it last raised the wage in 1997.

``The marketplace is going to dictate employee wages. You don't really need the government action anymore,'' said Mike Flynn, director of legislative affairs for the Employment Policies Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization in Washington, D.C.

Jerry Kusar, owner of R.B. Stout Inc., a lawn-care service in Akron, said he pays his workers far above minimum wage, as do his competitors in Northeast Ohio.

``I haven't used minimum wage in 10 years. I don't believe an increase would affect me or this industry,'' he said.

Kusar's company temporarily employs people from Mexico through the federal H-2B nonimmigrant program.

``They get a visa through my company and the government sets their wage rate,'' he said. ``I couldn't have them making more than my normal employees. That's when wages started rising.''

Even though the number of minimum wage earners is decreasing, thousands remain in Ohio. Thousands more make slightly more than the minimum wage. For them, the debate is significant.

Since November 2005, a coalition of citizens has been collecting signatures to place a proposal for a $6.85 minimum wage on the November ballot, said Tim Burga, director of government relations for the Ohio AFL-CIO.

They need more than 322,000 signatures by August and are currently around 300,000, Burga said.

Most of the people in Northeast Ohio who would benefit work in the service and agriculture businesses, said Kathryn Wilson, associate professor of economics at Kent State University.

Life on $10,712 a year

Tracy Townsend, a 23-year-old Akron woman, has been working full time at the Country Market on East South Street since April. She works for minimum wage.

A tank of gas at today's prices costs her a full day's earnings.

At her pay rate, she will make $10,712 this year, working 40 hours a week without vacations. The poverty threshold for a single person is $9,800, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Townsend lives with her boyfriend. He makes about $9 an hour at his job. Combined, they have an annual income of $29,432 a year.

They don't have trouble getting by, she said.

But she added, "(My boyfriend) just got temporary custody of his two youngest sons. They moved in last week so we are waiting to see how that goes." The couple are now raising three children, ranging in age from 2 to 7.

Why not seek a higher paying job?

"It doesn't make much of a difference, because they take so many taxes out," she said. The business owners "are good people. They treat me well."

Amin Abraham, owner of Country Market, said he starts all his employees at minimum wage.

"I feel for people here. They need to learn that an employer expects more of them. When I see good months, I will give them a bonus. I don't punish people. Just like your kids: They do well, they get rewarded," he said.

Companies are outsourcing work because labor costs are getting too high, he said. Raise the wage, and more jobs will be lost, he said.

Starting wage

Most economists acknowledge that the minimum wage is meant to be a starting wage, not a living wage.

About 73 percent of people who earn minimum wage are part-time workers, according to research David Macpherson of Florida State University conducted. His work, distributed by the Employment Policies Institute, also found that about 60 percent of minimum wage earners are younger than 24 and almost half live with their parents.

Even so, the debate continues.

"The minimum wage is so low that except for a single person who is living an economically devastated life, they can't live on it. People have to work two, three jobs to support themselves," said Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, another nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C.