Policy Matters Ohio

84.5%: Share of Ohio jobs that are in occupations for which the 2025 median wage was less than the cost of living for a family of three. (The median wage is in the middle: Half the workers in those occupations are paid more; half are paid less.) As noted in our

CNBC today identified Ohio as “America’s Top State for Business in 2026.” Policy Matters Executive Director Hannah Halbert issued the following statement:

“Ohio’s #1 ranking may be good news for businesses, but it doesn’t reflect the reality that many of the most common jobs in the state

July 1 marked the beginning of Gov. Mike DeWine’s 90-day window for nominating Ohio’s next round of Opportunity Zones (OZs): low-income communities where investors receive tax breaks for qualifying investments. The new designations will replace the 320 Opportunity Zones selected by Ohio in 2018 an...

Ohio needs to curb the data-center tax break that cost $2 billion in state and local revenue last year. If the billions being given out to Amazon, Google, Meta and others can’t be easily reine...

A full-time job should pay enough to afford the basics, but a new Policy Matters Ohio report finds that nine of the 10 most common Ohio jobs pay less than what it takes to support a small family. The