U.S. Sen. Rob Portman is pretty soft-spoken, but the Cincinnati Republican made a lot of noise last week when he announced he wouldn't seek re-election in 2022.
That immediately set off a frenzy of speculation (among observers) and positioning (among potential candidates in both parties) about who will run in a race that now seems more competitive than it otherwise would have been. Every seat is critical in a 50-50 Senate. Spending to get this one will be enormous.
But what are they getting?
It "has gotten harder and harder to break through the partisan gridlock and make progress on substantive policy" in the Senate, Portman said, in explaining why he won't pursue a third term. No doubt true, if possibly a little self-serving. (Everyone fancies themselves principled. It's always those other legislators who are hyper-partisan.)
We've wished on more than a few occasions that Portman had pushed back harder on the excesses of former President Donald Trump, and of a Republican Party that's increasingly gravitating toward extreme candidates. He accommodated a political culture that's getting worse. Yet Portman will be missed. He has made valuable contributions in the Senate on issues that matter, from opioid addition and human trafficking to trade and Great Lakes protection. So many of the people headed to Washington, D.C., now seem to be in it for anything but the legislating. Portman put in the work.
Maybe that's not enough these days, and it's not a great sign that someone like Portman doesn't want the job anymore.
There will be plenty of time to focus on the candidates who want to be Portman's successor. It will be on Ohio voters to pick a workhorse rather than a show horse. Wherever you fall on the political spectrum, you should hope Ohio's next U.S. senator brings to the job the level of seriousness that Portman demonstrated. We hope he finds a way to make his remaining time in office productive and identifies a post-Senate career that can help Ohio advance.
There's a new push at the federal level, led by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, among others, to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour from $7.25, where it has sat since 2009.
The approach outlined in the Raise the Wage Act is modest: a bump to $9.50 per hour immediately if the measure is passed, and then incremental hikes to $15 by 2025. Starting in 2026, the federal minimum wage would be indexed to median wage growth. If you're going to do it, this is the best way: slowly and predictably, so it's manageable for businesses.
The market's already telling us that $7.25 an hour is awfully low. (And note: The federal minimum wage is enforced in 21 states that either don't have a state minimum wage or set a level at or below $7.25; Ohio's rate is $8.80.) Walmart starts workers at $11 an hour, while Target and Costco already are at $15. At the current $7.25, a full-time worker earns a little more than $15,000 per year; a boost to $15 still leaves that worker at $31,200.
There are risks, though, to raising the minimum wage. A pre-pandemic report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2025 would cost 1.3 million workers their jobs. (A hike to $12 or $10, also studied, would have similar but smaller effects.) At that same time, the report found that the full hike would "boost the wages of 17 million workers who would otherwise earn less than $15 per hour. Another 10 million workers otherwise earning slightly more than $15 per hour might see their wages rise as well." A bit of something for everyone.
In a country as big and economically diverse as this one, it's better to have minimum wages set at the state level to account for disparities in output and the cost of living, with the federal government focused on improving macroeconomic conditions. Better still is to have employers take income inequality seriously and look hard for ways to push wages higher. The economy held up over the last year in large part due to "essential workers." It's hardly a stretch to say they should be on a path to making $15 per hour.
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January 31, 2021 at 04:00PM
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Crain's editorial: Ohio will need a workhorse as US Sen. Rob Portman's replacement - Crain's Cleveland Business
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