The most common jobs in the Dayton metro area include fast food and counter positions; registered nurses; general and operations managers; stockers and order-fillers; and retail sales persons, according to new occupational employment and wage statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Local fast food and counter workers have a median hourly pay of $13.32, while median pay is $14.52 for retail salespeople and $17.27 for stockers and order fillers, according to the survey data that provides wage and occupational estimates for May 2023.
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Median pay means half of workers in these occupations earn more than that amount and half earn less. The Dayton metro area includes Montgomery, Miami and Greene counties.
Local median pay is higher for registered nurses ($38.39 per hour) and general and operations managers ($46.63 per hour).
After that, the five next most common local jobs are cashiers ($13.33 median hourly wage), customer service representatives ($20.64 an hour), office clerks ($19.46 an hour), laborers and freight, stock and material movers ($17.28 an hour) and janitors and cleaners ($16.38 an hour).
Working and still qualifying for food stamps
Four of the top 10 jobs in the Dayton area pay so little that workers would qualify for and likely depend on food assistance to feed a family of three, says an analysis by Policy Matters Ohio that was released this month.
Those four low-paying occupations are fast food workers, retail salespeople, cashiers and home health and personal care aides. These jobs often pay an annual wage of less than 130% of the federal poverty level, which was $24,860 for a family of three in 2023, Shields said.
Combined, those occupations employ about 34,000 people in the Dayton region, or more than 9% of all local jobs, Policy Matters Ohio says.
Shields said registered nurses and general and operations managers are lucrative jobs, but most of the other top local jobs have very low or moderately low pay.
Pay often low, but recently rising
Median wages increased last year for all of the top 10 jobs in the Dayton metro area, plus many others.
Hourly pay increased most for fast food and counter workers and general and operations managers (+16.3%); customer service representatives (+14.2%); janitors and cleaners (+13.6%); and stockers and order fillers (+12.8%).
The median pay for all jobs in the Dayton area last year was $22.78 per hour, up from $21.70 in 2022 (+5%). That $22.78 per hour translates to $911 per 40-hour week, and $47,382 for a full year.
A single, childless adult in Dayton would need to earn around $18.75 per hour to support themselves, or about $39,000 per year, said Don Leonard, assistant professor of practice in city and regional planning at Ohio State University’s Knowlton School, citing estimates from MIT’s living wage calculator.
On the surface, many top jobs in the Dayton area just barely straddle the living wage line, which is the amount of money needed to get by without relying on government assistance, charity or consumer debt, Leonard said.
But living costs shoot up for households with children, Leonard said, noting that a single Dayton area worker would need to earn about $72,000 annually ($34.60 per hour) to support one child.
He said the living wage estimates also do not take into account household costs like unexpected medical bills or student loan payments.
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Leonard said workers who do not make a living wage face lots of challenges — too many to list. Workers often have to cut back or limit spending on food, medicine or maintenance of their homes or vehicles, he said.
“It can also mean taking on second shifts or parasitic amounts of consumer debt that gradually push them towards financial ruin,” he said.
Some living expenses for workers are driven by issues at the national level, like the cost of health care, Leonard said.
But other costs can be addressed at the local level by leaders and city planners, he said.
Good access to public transit can help people save money; zoning rules can promote the construction of multi-family housing, increasing the supply of housing and lowering housing costs; and welcoming immigrants can help revitalize neighborhoods through new investment and entrepreneurial activities, Leonard said.
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