“This is a stressful time for workers.” So begins the 2008 State of Working Wisconsin, a report produced biennially by COWS (Center on Wisconsin Strategy), a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank interested in improving economic performance and living standards in Wisconsin and the United States.
Key findings of the report include:
- Wisconsin’s economic growth is soft, jobs are falling, and manufacturing is slipping
- Wisconsin’s median wage ($15.17 per hour in 2007) is down compared to 2006-2007
- Wisconsin’s median family income is well below the 2000 benchmark (Wisconsin’s median family income has fallen at an annual rate of -1.5 percent per year, while the national family income has fallen at half that speed.)
- Wisconsin workers’ benefits are on the decline and low-wage workers are most vulnerable
- Wisconsin’s extreme inequality continues: racial disparity exists in the state (The poverty gap between whites and blacks in Milwaukee was the highest disparity posted by any of the nation’s top 100 metropolitan areas.)
See the full report online for more information, including many statistics.
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