Ohio’s minimum wage got a dime-sized bump to start the new year, boosting it from $8.70 to $8.80. Most minimum wage workers likely won’t notice the difference.

The pay hike translates to around $4 extra per week for people who earn a standard minimum wage — and for workers who earn tips, it’s even less. Their $4.35 hourly wage is now $4.40, adding up to an additional $2 for every 40 hours worked.

It’s the exact inflation-adjusted cost-of-living increase Ohio passed in 2006, but Caitlin Johnson, spokeswoman for the nonprofit Policy Matters Ohio, said none of it is actually enough for working families in 2020.

"It definitely helps workers because it means their paycheck is not going to lose value compared to rising price,” she said Friday. “But, no it's still not enough. It's definitely not nearly enough."

Johnson’s group supports the increasingly popular — but still only sparingly implemented — $15 minimum wage.

“$15 an hour is, at a minimum, what we feel is necessary to have a basic, decent standard of living in Ohio,” Johnson said.

About 67% of Americans support boosting the minimum wage to $15, according to a Pew Research Center survey performed in 2019. Campaigns for such an increase exist across the country, and many have successfully passed city-level governments. States like Florida and Virginia have committed to reach $15 via gradual increases by 2026.

And President-elect Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign included promises to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 for all workers, including those who earn tips. Once sworn in, he may have the power to make it happen.

But the change would mean adjustments for small business owners like Billy Watson, who owns Kitty’s Sports Grill in downtown Cincinnati, and their customers. A business with higher employee wages is likely a business that’s more expensive to shop at, he said.

“If it went up a lot, obviously you'd have to go up on some of your prices,” he said.

Ohio is home to about 12 million people, per United States Census data. Johnson estimated two million of them — a little over 16% — would get a pay raise from a minimum-wage increase.

CINCINNATI — City Council on Tuesday voted down a proposed ban on "vaccine passports," leaving the door open for private businesses to require their patrons to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination.

Republican Betsy Sundermann, who introduced the ban as a motion and became the only vote in its favor, argued it would provide clarity for Cincinnati companies considering vaccine passport requirements.

"Businesses have the right to know what we're going to do," she said. "It's not our role as government to force especially private businesses to require those. Our restaurants are struggling right now, our small businesses. We'd be asking servers and bartenders and grocer clerks to verify medical documents."

Every other member of City Council voted against a ban. Democrat Chris Seelbach argued it didn't make sense to consider a ban on a policy that was not widespread within the city and had not been formally proposed within City Hall.

"I am not going to support something that's banning us from doing something that we haven't even talked about even considering doing," he said.

Others, such as Republican Liz Keating, worried that implementing a ban now could tie the council's hands if health officials recommended vaccine passports in the future.

"I think, out of principle, making a decision about something we don't know in the future what health commissioners are going to advise, I just think it's irresponsible," she said.

Sundermann's proposed vaccine passport ban was a partial response to New York City's requirement that people show vaccine status there.

No single vaccine policy is banned or enforced by state law in Ohio. Some individual venues and private businesses in Cincinnati, including the Taft Theatre, Music Hall and Andrew J. Brady ICON Music Center, have instituted their own proof-of-vaccination policies.

CINCINNATI — Cincinnati is preserving affordable housing in the West End, but some believe it is coming at the expense of more than two dozen families.

Chris Griffin, West End Community Council president, said his father is one of the people paying the price for upgrades to the Arts Apartments.

"My father has been a 30-year resident at those apartments, and he's being displaced," Griffin said.

Griffin said his father fell victim to a policy involving tax incentives used to upgrade the Arts Apartments, long recognized as an affordable housing development that did not enforce specific income requirements.

By taking advantage of those tax incentives, apartment residents will now have to meet specific income requirements.

Griffin said those displaced are "poor" but "not poor enough" to live there.

"These people shouldn't have to move," he said. "They've been paying their rent there for a long time."

Cincinnati city council approved the tax exemption for owner and developer Birge & Held in November.

The company also applied for Low Income Housing Tax Credits through the state. And committed to making all units affordable.

Of the 248 units, 83 will be Section 8 housing. The remaining 165 units will be deemed affordable, with rents varying by income levels below 60 percent of the area median income.

For the West End, that means a family must make below $35,800 to live at the Arts Apartments.

Under the new terms, 28 existing tenants don't meet those income qualifications and must leave.

"My dad…he sent me a photo and said I don't want to end up like this," said Griffin, who shared a photograph on Twitter that appeared to show a displaced resident.

Welp this is what’s going on in the West End, Market-rate renter were forced out of their homes. 29 families the CDC and city council approved to be displaced from the west end @GregLandsman @ChrisSeelbach @voteSundermann @voteSmitherman @Dr_JRTate @VoteDillingham @StaceySmithCCC pic.twitter.com/czd0XSPMvw

— Christopher Griffin (@Chris_SupaG) August 25, 2021

But Mary Burke Rivers, executive director of Over-The-Rhine Community Housing, said that is not what's happening in the photo.

"In that particular image was a person who relocated on site while their unit was being renovated. And when they moved back they didn't want their furniture. So they talked to the property mangers and said, 'I don't want this. I'm going to put this out,'" she said.

OTRCH is working with Birge & Held on the project.

Rivers said those displaced are being offered relocation assistance.

"All moving expenses are being covered, nobody is set out, and can get upwards of over $9,000 in relocation benefits," Rivers said.

She added that the goal for her organization is to help preserve affordable housing, not end it for some residents.

"We know that it's so important to preserve affordable housing, because you can't get it back," Rivers said.

Some residents and West End representatives argue the changes in the neighborhood, such as those at the Arts Apartment, aren't helping everyone who lives there.

"This is just an example of the double-edge sword if we don't look at all outcomes of the actions that we're taking, and the development that we're doing," said Ashley White, West End Community Development Corporation president. "We need to talk to everyone and not just one side."

Both the West End Community Council and the West End Community Development Corporation said they want more say before the city council makes any further decisions on developments as more housing projects with set income levels are on the way for the West End.

"If we convert everything to deed-restricted income-based housing… we really don't have affordability for anybody at any other income," said Noah O'Brien, vice president of the West End Community Council.

This week on the Hear Cincinnati podcast, host Brian Niesz is joined by community reporter Lucy May and senior manager of enterprise/investigative Meghan Goth to discuss a sewing class with a path to employment, a book about growing up Black in Cincinnati, getting the COVID-19 vaccination to the Black community, and more.

Later, Brian is joined by WCPO reporters Mariel Carbone and Mike Dyer to discuss the changes to the Banks and to the ballpark ahead of Reds Opening Day next week.

Listen to this episode in the podcast player above.

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CINCINNATI — The sounds of construction never stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic, even as other industries skidded to a halt due to new health restrictions and supply chain complications. Cincinnatians resuming “normal” life in 2021 will have new places to do it: TQL Stadium, the permanent home of FC Cincinnati, and the Ovation music venue, for a start.

Longterm industry members such as David Spaulding, vice president and manager of Turner Construction’s Cincinnati office, hope the relative stability of construction work will entice more people to enter their field.

“(During) one of the worst pandemics in our lifetime, most of our people stayed at work,” he said Wednesday. “A lot of people dug down deep, they got a lot of work done, and I think it's going to help the community.”

And outlook for the future is still good, according to Allied Construction Industries executive director Jordan Vogel.

“The construction industry were able to feed their families and stay in their jobs — but, having said that, because the pandemic affected so many other industries, what's happening is, in 2021, there's a greater need for construction talent than there was in 2020,” he said.

How much greater? Vogel predicts a nationwide need for 430,000 new construction workers in 2021 compared to 2020.

“What the means is, we’ve got to be pretty aggressive about finding and training that talent,” he said. “And the good news is our employers are aggressive about it.”

Turner Construction is an international company, but local manager Spaulding said he’s focused on recruiting locally and developing talent in the Cincinnati area.

Vogel said there’s lots here already, and he predicts the industry will stay strong.

“Always have been, still are,” he said. “Probably will be for the foreseeable future.”