State of Working Wisconsin
For more than two decades, the State of Working Wisconsin has presented the workers’ perspective on the Wisconsin economy. The State of Working Wisconsin 2022 provides the most recent data available on wages, jobs, disparities, and unions to build a stronger understanding of what is going on in the state’s labor market.
Featured
Facts from the Frontline
The union manufacturing jobs that once flourished in Milwaukee have since been replaced by low-wage, non-union service jobs, exacerbating racial and economic disparities. Properly addressing the impact of this shift starts with restructuring the city’s service sector.
Worker Power Levels the Playing Field
Strong community benefit agreements are the most certain and robust way for communities to obtain real and lasting returns from large-scale private developments such as the proposed Iron District in Milwaukee.
Playing with Public Money in Milwaukee
Asking for public money for sports stadiums, developers promise economic development, urban renewal, and neighborhood revitalization. Despite the big promises, public investments are often neither transparent nor accountable.
COWS in the News
41% of Milwaukee Workers Have ‘Bad’ Jobs
“Milwaukee has become a center of low-wage workers,” says Peter Rickman, President of MASH, the Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Organization, which partnered with COWS on the study. “It was once one of the …
March 22, 2023Wisconsin layoff notices up from this time last year, showing signs of possible economic slowdown
Despite unemployment remaining low, Laura Dresser, associate director of the COWS economic think tank at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said increased layoffs are tied to the Federal Reserve’s efforts to curb inflation by raising interest …
March 20, 2023COWS report finds 41 percent of Milwaukee workers paid less than $15 per hour
In its “Facts from the Frontline” report, COWS highlights the declining share of manufacturing employees making up the region’s workforce, as well as falling union membership and rising income inequality along racial lines.
March 14, 2023- More