1. Raise incomes so that 40 hours is enough.
The productivity of working Americans has grown 3 times faster than their wages since the end of WWII. It’s time that members of the productive class get what they are owed.
This begins by raising the floor so that every full-time job in Ohio provides a living wage. To do this, I will fight to triple the federal minimum wage of $7.25. If billionaires like Jeff Bezos can afford to get their kicks building spaceships, they can afford to pay the warehousing and logistics workers of central Ohio.
Second, we must double the federal government’s investment in trade schools through the Career and Technical Education program. That way we can ensure that Ohio businesses can find the skilled labor they need to make their visions a reality.
Third, the federal government must re-invest in smaller cities and towns, especially those of Ohio’s 15th district that have been hit hardest by globalization. This includes additional infrastructure dollars to connect rural communities with Ohio’s main centers of economic growth—both physically with transportation infrastructure and digitally with 21st century broadband service. And I will make certain we use union labor to do it.
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Ohio never recovered from Republican and Democratic free trade agreements. Now there are new storms on the horizon, with automation and AI posing threats… and opportunities. In order to build an economy that’s ready for all that this century and the next one have in store, we need to make sure that Americans who work full time jobs can do more than just make ends meet. They need to be able to support their family, save for rainy days, and have money left over every month to enjoy living in the world’s most prosperous country.