Report: Wisconsin family income up, growing inequality

Where do Wisconsin workers and families stand in the decade-long economic expansion?

That heady question is tackled in a new report – “The State of Working Wisconsin 2000” – released Sunday, Sept. 3, by the Center on Wisconsin Strategy at UW–Madison.

The report documents good news for many workers and their families, particularly regarding recent trends in the median wage and median family income.

At the same time the report sounds the alarm over large segments of Wisconsin’s working population stuck in poverty wage jobs and otherwise missing out on the fruits of Wisconsin’s booming economy.

Key findings include:

• The median family income in Wisconsin is up and has recently been growing at almost double the national rate.
• Overall, median wages are moving upward, but are down from 1979 for white men, African-Americans, and full-time workers.
• While many Wisconsinites are celebrating the state’s new prosperity, significant numbers are still locked out of jobs that pay family-supporting wages.
  The strong Wisconsin economy masks growing income inequality.

“The good news here is that median wages are finally up,” says Joel Rogers, director of COWS and co-author of the report. “But we’ve got a very long way to go to get back to shared prosperity. One of the many things that make Wisconsin a great place to live and work is that we don’t have the gross inequalities that mark other states. That’s a precious thing, which I’d really hate to see us lose.”

“The working poor are sort of a blind spot in our social policy, and we should correct that,” says Laura Dresser, COWS’ research director. “These are people who play by the rules, and keep losing.”

Dresser and Rogers offered a series of policy recommendations geared toward “building a high road economy”:

• Improve job quality.
• Support working families.
• Reduce racial disparity by focusing on education and training.
• Rebuild metropolitan areas and discourage statewide sprawl.

“We’ve really got to confront sprawl head on,” says Rogers. “There’s been way too much talk, and way too little action on this issue. ‘Smart growth’ shouldn’t be another empty cliche; we’ve got to move beyond mere planning to make smart growth a reality. And yes, that means hard choices. But our future as a good place to live depends on making them.”

COWS produces the “State of Working Wisconsin” every two years. This is the third edition of the report.