Lowest-paid workers in Ohio don't qualify for jobless benefits

[Judi Lynn]

Lowest-paid workers in Ohio don't qualify for jobless benefits
Saturday, October 02, 2004
Alison Grant
Plain Dealer Reporter

James Brady turned to temporary work when he lost an 18-year job at a Cleveland stamping plant in 1997.

For the next seven years, he rose most days at 4 a.m. to catch a bus to a downtown temp agency.

From there he was sent out to wash dishes at a restaurant, load a conveyor belt at a heat treating plant and pack cookware for shipment. But last year he ran out of steady assignments, and he applied for unemployment compensation.

That's when Brady, 69, learned a hard fact about being a low-wage worker in Ohio.

If you work year-round, 35 hours a week but at minimum wage or close to it Ohio, alone among the states, says you're not eligible for unemployment benefits;
(snip/...)

http://www.cleveland.com/business/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/business/109670944869310.xml

[hobbit709]

1. Lowest-paid workers in Ohio don't qualify for jobless benefits"

That sucks the big one. The corporations/repukes want to turn the clock back a thousand years or so to the feudal system. the better remember that there's a lot more peasants with torches and pitchforks than there is of them.

[Merlin]

2. Christian ethics turned upside down!

This is a freaking outrage! This is what the right wing moralists do for "the least of my bretheren."

[pop goes the weasel]

3. I'm not shocked

I'm an adjunct college instructor. But I do not qualify for benefits such as employer contributions to retirement and health plans, and for no unemployment because, no matter how many hours I actually put in, I am considered to be less than half-time employed. The bad part of this is obvious; the good part is that I am keenly aware of just how bad everyone else who is considered to be a less than 20 hour employee of the state has it (and you can have two less than 20 jobs with the state, which will together still add up to no benefits).

The problem of people being not included in the miserly social safety net that still exists is widespread and growing, and people need to pay attention to it.

[dumpster_baby]

4. America is the greatest country in the world

or at least it will be after we throw our traitorous leaders in prison for failing to provide for the "general welfare" as our Constitution requires and as almost all other western nations do.