Wisconsin’s median hourly wage hit a record high of $25.01 last year, as stronger wage growth for lower-paid workers helped cut wage inequality in the state.
That’s according to this year’s State of Working Wisconsin report from the High Road Strategy Center, a left-leaning nonprofit think tank based at UW-Madison. It focuses on various measures of worker success as well as broader economic trends for the state.
Both in Wisconsin and nationally, workers with lower wages have seen stronger growth in their pay between 2019 and 2024 than those at the upper end of the payscale, the report shows. Authors say this marks a “notable departure” from previous decades of rising wage inequality.
From 2019 to 2024, wages of workers earning more than 80% of the workforce rose by 5%. But for those in the bottom 20th percentile for wages, pay grew by 13% over the same period, greater than the national increase for the same group.
“Lower wage workers have seized the opportunity provided by tight labor markets and moved to higher paying jobs and secured higher wages in jobs that they stay in,” authors wrote. “As a result, our wage distribution is more equal today than it was in 2019.”
Along with a new record high for the state’s median wage in 2024, Wisconsin’s labor market hit a record 3,058,500 jobs in July of this year. Authors note “these are strengths to be celebrated.” But the milestones come amid slower job growth in the state.
The report shows job growth in the state “substantially lags” the pace of national recovery, as the U.S. economy exceeded the pre-pandemic jobs total before Wisconsin did and keeps growing more quickly than that of the state. In July, even as the state set a new labor market record, Wisconsin had just 2% more jobs than before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns, falling behind the national increase of 5%.
Among key sectors for the state, the rate of growth in Wisconsin is below the national level for each one except for construction, with 13% state job growth in this sector since February 2020 compared to 9% at the national level.
The report also highlights ongoing disparities in state unemployment along racial lines. In the first quarter of this year, white unemployment in the state was at 2.5% while Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Wisconsin were at 2.9%. That figure was 4.6% for Hispanic state residents and 5.8% for Black residents.
“For decades, Black workers have been well over twice as likely to be unemployed as white workers in the state, and this ratio in Wisconsin has always substantially exceeded the national ratio of disparity,” authors wrote.
And while white men generally earn more than other categories of workers, the report also shows the gender wage gap has been steadily closing over the last 45 years. Between 1979 and 2024, women’s wages grew by more than 50% while men’s wages saw marginal growth.
But at the same time, racial inequalities in pay are growing, authors note. Wage growth among white women is driving much of the improvement in pay for women overall. Over the 45-year study period, white women’s wages have grown by 56%, compared to 41% for Hispanic women and 19% for Black women.
Meanwhile, wages grew more slowly for white men during that time, while median wages for Black and Hispanic men “have actually fallen substantially,” authors note. Wages for white men rose 9% while wages for Hispanic men and Black men fell by 11% and 12%, respectively.
Other sections of the report detail the state’s declining union membership, trends in labor force participation, the role of immigrants in the state economy and impacts of federal policy.
Authors warn of an “economic storm on the horizon,” pointing to higher costs linked to tariffs, the national deportation push, and federal layoffs in agencies tasked with supporting workers and unions.
See the report.
