Buckeye State residents who feel as though they are struggling to a greater degree than those other parts of the country are not imagining things. A report by Oxfam America says nearly one-quarter of Ohio workers earn under $17 an hour. According to Axios reporting, that is the figure Oxfam America considers to be a living wage.

But the nonprofit anti-poverty group dug deeper into Ohio’s data and found we have a higher number of people under that line than the national average; and that about 1.3 million Ohioans may be struggling to keep up with expenses.

Axios broke down the Oxfam America report to show that those who are Black, Hispanic or women are much more likely to be paid less than $17 an hour. In addition, 62% of Buckeye State residents between ages 16 and 24 are paid less than $17, while 22% of workers ages 25-39, 14% between 40-54 and 18% older than 55 fall into that category.

While some advocates argue there is a need to increase minimum wage in Ohio, there is another problem crippling us. The employers who bring the quality, high-paying jobs simply aren’t here.

And, were any of them looking to build in most parts of the state, they would run into challenges such as access to enough affordable housing, good schools, quality healthcare and child care. That’s got to change. Community, county and state officials have got to switch up their thinking to a “Field of Dreams” style optimism that we CAN be ready, and if we build up our communities with that in mind, the large employers will come.

Finding the money is a challenge, which is why state officials had better be as interested in incentivizing housing, child care and such as they are in providing loans and tax breaks to enormous companies. We can lift ALL Ohioans.