Center on Wisconsin Strategy: For Labor Day: State of Working Wisconsin 2018

Released today, State of Working Wisconsin 2018 addresses some of the most critical issues facing workers in this state. So how are workers faring? Wisconsin’s economy, at least in employment and family income, has finally and meaningfully recovered from the Great Recession that began a decade ago. This is very welcome news for working Wisconsinites. However, this good news is not untarnished. 

 
Wisconsin’s Job Growth Consistently Slower than National
Although Wisconsin’s job base has grown, the rate of growth remains slow compared to the national rate. From January 2011 to March 2018, Wisconsin added 233,300 jobs. If Wisconsin’s job growth matched the national rate, we would have added 364,000 jobs. Wisconsin is missing some 130,700 jobs. 
 
Growth Concentrated in Urban Areas 
Since 2000, Wisconsin’s urban counties have added 94,700 jobs. Over the same period, rural counties lost 9,500. The urban workforce is growing, diversifying, and becoming more educated. Rural areas face job loss, loss of younger workers, and an aging population. 
 
Wage Stagnation: Annual Growth under $0.03 per hour Taking inflation into account, the state’s 2017 median hourly wage, $18.34, exceeds the 1979 median by just one dollar per hour. That translates to an average annual raise of less than 3 cents per hour, despite the fact that today’s typical worker is more productive, being both substantially more educated and working with better technology than in 1979.
 
Wage Inequality Persistent 
The gap between women and men has been shrinking, but slowly, and women in Wisconsin make 84 cents for every dollar men make. The median black worker brings home $16.10 per hour, 19 percent less than the white median. Earning $13.48 per hour, the Hispanic worker lags behind the white median by 43 percent. The state’s median worker who has a high school degree earns $11 per hour less than the median worker with a four-year college degree or more ($15.23 compared to $26.39). Associates degrees (usually from WTCS) bring wages up to around $18 per hour. 
 
Poverty-Wages in Wisconsin 
More than 675,000 Wisconsin workers, or roughly one of every five workers in the state, earn wages below $11.95 per hour. The median age of a poverty-wage worker in Wisconsin is 29 years. White women are twice as likely to earn poverty wages as white men: 11.6 percent of white men compared 19.8 percent of white women. One-in-five Black men and nearly two-in-five Black women earn poverty wages. 
 
Union Representation in Decline 
Since Act 10 was passed, Wisconsin’s public sector unionization rate has plummeted from over 50 percent to 19 percent.