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The industry continues to struggle with low wages in Ohio

Thelegal cannabis space supports more than 440,000 full-time equivalent jobs, per an April 2024 report from marijuana staffing company Vangst and analytics firm Whitney Economics.

Industry observers interviewed by Scene remain bullish about Ohio’s potential, despite legislative interference with the state’s recreational marijuana initiative that could hinder the creation of quality jobs.

Based on Indeed data, dispensary consultant positions in Ohio typically pay $17 per hour, while general managers earn up to $26 per hour. In Cleveland, cannabis cultivators bring in $39,000-$70,000 each year, with lab managers grossing about $60,000 annually.

With the sector still in its infancy, a strong job market has room to emerge, notes Lenny Berry, founder and CEO of the Ohio Cannabis Health & Business Summit, which brings vendors, speakers and industry leaders to the International Exposition Center every October.

Even with high entry-level turnover, the anticipated introduction of pre-rolls and other combustible products could open up more job opportunities, Berry said.

“The (Ohio) Division of Cannabis Control can give guidance to operations on how and what can be manufactured,” said Berry. “You’ll have processing jobs, so there will be opportunities to work with machinery around pre-rolls. You’ll need technicians to make those products, and people to infuse them.”

Today, most cannabis positions in Ohio encompass cultivation, retail, compliance and administration. Cultivators and trimmers operate on the grow side, as well as processing technicians who handle extraction and preparation of marijuana products. Dispensary consultants, security personnel and management staff round out the employment rolls for most companies in state.

Berry said that while bigger brands may focus on job volume, smaller businesses are better positioned to develop employees for long-term, higher-paying careers. Berry has his own stake in this as co-founder of Tom & Berry’s Special Reserve, a startup that sells flower to regional dispensaries.

Along with partner Tom Mikulski, Berry aims to train a workforce that can thrive in the cannabis realm long-term, he said.

“I’m not training up people for another company, but I’m creating a quality worker who can be a face for our industry,” said Berry. “Bigger companies that are more fast-paced don’t have time to curate employees like a mom-and-pop. The more quality people you have, the more it helps with the overall landscape.”

More expansion, more jobs
Achieving a livable cannabis wage is tough, even in markets far more established than Ohio’s. For instance, the majority of California’s marijuana workers earn less than the state’s average living wage of $65,000 per year. Although employees receive a median hourly wage of $19.50 – above California’s minimum wage and median wages in retail and delivery – workers across demographics struggled to pay for food and groceries within the past year.

According to the survey of 1,100 marijuana employees by the UCLA Labor Center and the Cannabis Worker Collab research hub, nearly 43% of women, 29% of men and 81% of gender-nonconforming workers had difficulty covering their daily expenses.

The study offers several recommendations for improving job quality, including paid apprenticeships, mandated certified training for new hires, and investment in workforce development courses.

Although Ohio’s average cost of living is much lower than California’s – about $48,000 a year – onlookers are hopeful that wages will grow a pace with the state’s cannabis sector.

Wesley Bryant, a hemp manufacturing wholesaler in Brookpark, hired most of his 50 current staffers from the Cleveland School of Cannabis, an accredited career institution for marijuana employees. Seventeen of Bryant’s hires receive full benefits and 401k plans, he said.

“People are coming in pre-trained, and for those who aren’t, we have a payment plan to get them back into school,” Bryant said. “There’s in-house education taking place as well.”

Bryant said Ohio’s excessive regulation of cannabis products has resulted in thinner profit margins, making it harder to pay employees higher wages. A bottle of THC gummies, for example, is twice as costly to produce as the same serving size of hemp gummies.

Which also highlights a larger problem – a political establishment unwilling to “release the beast,” said Bryant.

“With a new market, you’re still pushing against politicians,” he said. “The surge in legal cannabis users in Ohio is a direct reflection of the will of the voters. But no further facilities were opened to handle that new influx of adult-use cannabis, so we’re sitting with the same amount of facilities to produce ten times as much cannabis for the open market.”

The result? A workforce stuck in limbo, facing lower wages within a still-developing market, adds Bryant.

Getting in the way

It appears one major impediment to Ohio’s cannabis market has been tabled, at least for now. Senate Bill 56, which proposed major revisions to the recreational cannabis law passed by voters in Nov. 2023, was pulled from the schedule on June 18, just hours before it was set for a vote.

Among its provisions, the bill would have removed a social equity and jobs program designed to provide licensing opportunities for minority entrepreneurs. Cannabis summit founder Berry is aware of at least one company that pulled funds from its social equity licensing due to the uncertainty.

“These are businesses focused on (provisions) that were voted for legally,” said Berry. “This company could have created jobs just on social equity alone. It’s a big impact for the community and state, and I don’t understand why you’d take that away.”

Ohio allowing operators to hold public information sessions would significantly benefit the job market, Berry continued. Though Berry’s annual industry summit educates those interested in cannabis, consistent year-round messaging would further reduce stigma and help people see marijuana as a viable career path, he said.

“Let’s bring some normalization to the industry, where people can feel okay navigating through the space from a consumer, employee and ownership standpoint,” Berry said. “Everything in the space will evolve from there.”

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