Cleveland saw it as a simple ask for developers who received financial help from the city. Once their projects were completed, the employees who work there should be paid a living wage.
Cleveland’s living wage, officially known as the fair employment wage, is currently $16.85 per hour. Ohio’s minimum wage is $11. Both are adjusted annually based on inflation.
Developers have resisted paying the higher wage, Tyson Mitchell, director of the city’s Office of Equal Opportunity, told Signal Cleveland. His office negotiates and monitors agreements with developers who receive grants, tax abatements, low-interest loans and other support in exchange for pledging to do something that will financially uplift residents in one of the nation’s poorest big cities.
If you receive city finances, then you should be willing to pay your workers at least a living wage. It’s important because those who make below the living wage are usually people from the Cleveland community, including Black women and brown folks. These are people who have been historically left out…