Special Projects

Advancing Workforce Equity Needed for Shared Prosperity

The Columbus (Ohio) metropolitan area is one of the fastest-growing economies in the nation, but research shows that the prosperity generated by the area’s tremendous growth is not being shared equitably. The following report released in 2022 brings focus to this issue and is further emphasized with two additional research reports released in 2024.

Advancing Workforce Equity in Columbus: A Blueprint for Action was released on May 9, 2022, by the National Equity Atlas (a partnership between PolicyLink and the USC Equity Research Institute) with One Columbus, the Workforce Innovation Center, Emsi Burning Glass, and JPMorgan Chase.

People of color make up a rapidly growing share of the Columbus area’s workforce, but they continue to face stark inequities in employment and wages, according to a report by the National Equity Atlas. In fact, workers of color tend to be overrepresented in lower paying occupational groups, while white workers are overrepresented in higher paying professions. This segregation in the workforce hampers the region’s economic growth. In 2018 alone, racial economic exclusion cost Columbus economy about $10 billion. The report, Advancing Workforce Equity in Columbus: A Blueprint for Action, outlines strategies and underscores that achieving the vision of an equitable workforce will require cross-sector collaboration to dismantle barriers to racial economic inclusion and cultivate equity in education, training, hiring, advancement, and the social determinants of work that support positive economic outcomes for workers and families. 

A Report from the Brookings Institution (March 5, 2024) finds Columbus, listed among 54 very large metropolitan areas, has benefited from national economic growth, but ranks last for racially inclusive growth over 10 years. 

According to the Brookings Institution Metro Monitor 2024: Is metropolitan America benefitting from national growth?, Columbus ranked relatively low compared to other regions for economic growth of minorities. A senior research analyst stated that economic outcomes are, by and large, becoming worse for workers of color and households living in low-income neighborhoods. While economic growth spread in the Midwest, it did not necessarily extend to workers in the region. Additionally, the existing earnings gap is so large and so pervasive that even with some gains, inequality is worsening. 

In a study of 25 metrics related to prosperity, McKinsey & Company found that outcomes for the 330,000-plus Black residents of the Columbus region are substantially worse than those of their white neighbors. (See "700 years to equality", The Columbus Dispatch, June 17, 2024.)

McKinsey & Company reports that it would take 700 years for Franklin County to close the current gap in prosperity. Nationally, Franklin County is in the bottom quarter of all U.S. counties in terms of Black and white disparities, despite Franklin County's growth being largely driven by Black residents. Median Black household income is $54,000, compared to $81,000 for white households. White residents live three years longer and are more than twice as likely to own their homes and to have a four-year degree. The history of discrimination cannot be reversed but it is possible to do more to improve quality of life and address inequality with the potential to boost the local economy up to $10 billion a year.