Get the Blueprint

Manufacturing NewsTEG DailyNovember 14, 2026

November 14, 2026 · Statewide · Story 2 of 3

Power Up ETG Cuts Indiana's Wage Threshold to 10%

Daniel BurkePublished every day

Governor Mike Braun announced November 13 that Power Up Indiana is now the Power Up Employer Training Grant, and the Indiana wage threshold needed to qualify for Power Up ETG dropped from 25% to 10% for workers starting at $20 an hour or more. For a worker making $20 an hour, that's a $2-an-hour raise, the cheapest the program has required since it launched. The reimbursement math hasn't moved: $5,000 per employee, capped at $50,000 per company each year. State officials point to a $34.30 average hourly wage among participating employers, a 28.6% increase, concentrated in healthcare and manufacturing.

The structure underneath this program dates back nine years to Governor Holcomb's original 2017 Employer Training Grant, so the headline change is who can get in the door, not what the program does once they're there. That $50,000 annual cap per company hasn't moved, and it's thin for a manufacturer running a multi-year registered apprenticeship cohort, the exact training category state officials have flagged advanced manufacturing as underserved on. The Workforce Ready Grant that feeds Ivy Tech's credential pipeline is already running at nearly double its appropriation, $9.5 million in costs against a $5.7 million budget. If the lower wage threshold pulls a wave of new employers into credential training, Ivy Tech's capacity could become the next bottleneck before the training dollars run short.

Impact
This is less a new program than a threshold reset on a nine-year-old reimbursement architecture that dates to Governor Holcomb's original 2017 Employer Training Grant, the headline change is accessibility, not design. The real constraint for mid-size manufacturers is the unchanged $50,000/company annual cap, which is structurally too thin to fund multi-year registered-apprenticeship cohorts in a state where officials have flagged advanced manufacturing as the sector 'most underserved' by apprenticeships; meanwhile the Workforce Ready Grant feeding Ivy Tech's credential pipeline is already overextended (costs doubled to $9.5 million against a $5.7 million appropriation), so a surge in ETG-driven credential demand could hit a training-capacity wall before it hits an employer-willingness wall.
Watch
Whether DWD addresses the $50,000/year cap for multi-year apprenticeship cohorts, and whether Workforce Ready Grant funding gets a fix before Ivy Tech credential demand spikes.
For the huddle

If we're running a multi-year apprenticeship cohort, does the $50,000/year Power Up ETG cap actually cover our real training spend, or do we need to stack it with federal apprenticeship or WIOA dollars to make the math work?

It lowers the bar to qualify, but the $50,000-per-company annual cap hasn't changed, so a multi-year registered apprenticeship cohort will likely need federal apprenticeship or WIOA dollars stacked on top to cover the real training spend.

Sources

  1. Gov. Braun recharges Power Up Employer Training Grant to grow wages for more Hoosier workers · wbiw.com

From the brief, November 14, 2026

  1. Simtra Opens $250M Bloomington Expansion, Plans 18 Filling Lines by 2027
  2. Power Up ETG Cuts Indiana's Wage Threshold to 10%
  3. EPA Digs Up Lead From a Muncie Battery Plant That Closed in 1984

The whole day’s brief →

This story

Shop Floor Workforce

Related

Manufacturers Energy Grant Program

Free for Indiana manufacturers

Manufacturers from qualifying Indiana counties receive free, ongoing energy auditing and cost control that reduces their energy bills and keeps them low, month after month. Every line item checked and validated, every opportunity found comes with a step-by-step guide to capture it.

Claim your GrantCheck out the program

EDCs: sponsor this program and it carries your organization's name For economic developers →