The national study of US census data shows a middle class in Ohio that has steadily shrunk since the 1980s. The study was released by the non-profit group Policy Matters Ohio.
Amy Hanauer is the group's executive director.
Hanauer: "What has gotten worse in Ohio indisputably is that we don't have the job growth that we need. So we are entering a recession without having recovered the jobs we had going into the previous recession."
Hanauer says the income disparity isn't as wide in Ohio as other states, mainly because Ohio's top earners didn't gain as much as top earners nationally, while the two bottom groups lost wages nationally.
In Ohio, middle wage-earner incomes grew by 23.7 percent and the poorest Ohiooans' incomes grew by just over 11 percent. The top 5 percent of families' incomes grew by thirty four percent.
The survey considers the average middle income to be just under $50,000 a year.
Kymberli Hagelberg, 90.3