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Ohio's working poor need more assistance, study says

Ohio needs to coordinate its job training and adult education programs, expand its unemployment benefits and lessen the tax burden on low-income workers if it wants to help the state's neediest residents become self-sufficient, a study released Monday concludes. The report, "Average Isn't Enough: Advancing Working Families to Create an Outstanding Ohio Economy," examines Ohio's growing poor and low-income residents and what can be done to help them. Community Research Partners of Columbus compiled the report as part of a national working-families project sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The study found that one in five jobs in Ohio pays less than poverty-level wages. For a family of four, that was $18,392, or $8.84 an hour, according to 2002 census statistics that were used for the report. More than 350,000 Ohio families with children can be categorized as low-income - earning $36,783 annually ($17.68/hour). Though the latter group isn't poor enough to qualify for many government programs, their incomes are often too low to pay for expenses such as transportation, health care and child care. [more]