COWS
High Road Strategy Center

Publications by Joel Rogers

  • The State of Working Wisconsin 2023
    Pablo Aquiles-Sanchez, Laura Dresser, and Joel Rogers. The State of Working Wisconsin 2023. COWS.

    In celebration of Wisconsin workers, COWS releases The State of Working Wisconsin 2023 with 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.

    Read more Document
  • Pablo Aquiles-Sanchez, Laura Dresser, Anna Milewski, and Joel Rogers. The State of Working Wisconsin 2022. COWS, 2022.

    In celebration of Wisconsin workers, COWS releases The State of Working Wisconsin 2022 with 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. Released for Labor Day 2022, this year’s report also features a series of profiles highlighting stories of workers organizing across Wisconsin.

    Read more
  • Xavier de Sousa Briggs, and Joel Rogers. “A More Democratic Federalism?”. Democracy, Vol. 62, 2021.
    Read more Document
  • Scott Bernstein, and Joel Rogers. 7 Steps to Municipal Resilience & Recovery. COWS, 2021, p. 9.
    Document
  • Laura Dresser, Adam Kanter, and Joel Rogers. The State of Working Wisconsin 2021. COWS, 2021.

    Released for Labor Day 2021, the State of Working Wisconsin report focuses on how working people are doing and continues to shine a spotlight on the state’s brutal Black-white disparities.

    A project of COWS, the State of Working Wisconsin has presented the workers’ perspective on the economy in the state for more than two decades: who is winning, and who is being left out; where is disparity growing; and what’s happening to the economic chasm separating Black and white workers in the state.

    Read more
  • Joel Rogers. Biden’s Task and Ours. Vol. 50, no. 4, Social Policy, 2020, p. 9.
    Document
  • Joel Rogers, Kevin Knutson, and Mike Bell. Productive Places in a Post-Pandemic Era: A Roadmap for Cities and Counties. Envisio Blog, 2020.
    Read more Document
  • Joel Rogers. How About Productive Democracy for a Change. no. 1, Social Policy, 2020, pp. 19-25.
    Document
  • Kristinn Már Ársælsson, and Joel Rogers. Digital’s Promise for Worker Organizing: A 2018 Update. LIFT (Labor Innovation for the 21st Century), 2019.

    Digital tools and technologies—most familiarly, apps, websites, internet search engines and social media platforms—have become a central and pervasive feature of our lives.

    Document
  • Laura Dresser, and Joel Rogers. The State of Working Wisconsin 2019: Facts & Figures. COWS, 2019.

    Each year on Labor Day, COWS draws a picture of how working people in Wisconsin are faring. The long report, The State of Working Wisconsin, is released biannually on even-numbered years and looks at the economy comprehensively from a working-family perspective. In odd-numbered years, like 2019, we provide a more abbreviated and focused report, called The State of Working Wisconsin: Facts & Figures.

    On some of the most well-known economic indicators, there is good news for Wisconsin workers. The unemployment rate in the state has been consistently low. The economy is steadily adding jobs. These are important measures for working people’s lives. When jobs are more available not only is it easier to secure a job, it is also easier to get the hours of work you want, to be able to ask for time-off you need, and to make ends meet. This Labor Day, with the memory of the Great Recession of 2007 now fading from memory, workers across Wisconsin have this good news to celebrate.

    Even so, many working families in the state feel stressed and stretched. In this report, then, we provide information on few key long-term trends that are contributing to the stress even in the context of low unemployment. Looking across the last forty years, the challenges working people face are clear. Wage growth has been anemic. Income inequality is reaching new highs. Unions, which have been so critical to supporting workers in this state, are in serious decline. Additionally, state policy, which could be helping to close gaps, is actually exacerbating these trends. From tax changes that reward our highest income families to rejection of health insurance to cover our families in need, policy continues to pave the low-road for our state.

    Document