Cleveland's Fair Employment Wage Increasing

Aug 17, 2023

Some Cleveland contract employees  will get a pay bump as of Oct. 1 thanks to legislation City Council passed during its Aug. 16 meeting.

Council amended the city’s “Fair Employment Wage” law to set the required rate at $15.33 an hour and include yearly adjustments to keep pace with inflation.

Nearly all city employees are paid at least $15 an hour, a change that fulfilled a pledge former Mayor Frank Jackson made during his final run for the city’s top job. The city adjusted pay for some trainees and interns earlier this year in the spirit of that promise.

But Cleveland’s law, which also applies to people hired by city contractors, had been stuck at $10 an hour since 2006, when it was frozen during an economic downturn. The state minimum hourly wage has since exceeded that and is now $10.10.

Council approved increasing the minimum wage to $15.33. The legislation also ties it to annual inflation with adjustments every October according to the Consumer Price Index for Northeast Ohio. 

The legislation was sponsored by Council Members Danny Kelly, Charles Slife, Rebecca Maurer and Council President Blaine A. Griffin. Ord. No. 802-2023

In recent years, Cleveland paid at least at least $17 million to contractors to clean up city lots, fill potholes and dig graves in a city cemetery. Some of those workers made as little as $13 an hour.