The State of Working Wisconsin 2025 is now LIVE!
Inside Our 2025 Year in Review 
The High Road Strategy Center’s 2025 Year in Review is now available, showcasing the projects, partnerships, and policy work that shaped our year. The report includes top stories from across programs, major reports and convenings, impact metrics, and reflections from mayors and long-time partners.
Check out our 2025 Year in Review
Featured
State of Working Wisconsin 2025
In 2025, we release The State of Working Wisconsin 2025, a report on how working people are faring across the state. The report highlights strengths such as record-high median wages and a robust labor market, while also underscoring challenges including slow job growth, deep inequalities, declining unions, and major disruptions from federal policy.
From Community Benefits, to Collective Bargaining, and Back
Community Benefits Agreements can yield strong results from public investments in private projects like stadiums. Milwaukee's first CBA established labor peace and enabled workers to form MASH. This report showcases how MASH has improved employment and job quality standards for service workers in Milwaukee's Deer District and beyond.
Covering the Bases
Cities across the country routinely make investments in stadiums, such as the Kansas City Royals, despite ample evidence that communities don’t secure promised economic returns. In this paper, we draw on national evidence and experience in Milwaukee to help inform the public discussion in Kansas City.
High Road Strategy Center in the News
DataWatch: Wisconsin hasn’t raised its minimum wage for 17 years. What does that mean for workers and the economy?
Wisconsin Watch explores how Wisconsin’s failure to raise its minimum wage for 17 years has eroded workers’ purchasing power, drawing on High Road Strategy Center research on the benefits of higher wages. Associate Director Laura Dresser underscores that a strong wage floor is essential to ensure full-time work provides a basic standard of living.
February 2, 2026Point Taken w/ Kristin Brey – October 14th, 2025
Point Taken host Kristin Brey chats with Laura Dresser about tariffs, immigration, and the shifting landscape of Wisconsin’s economy.
October 14, 2025Wisconsin’s Economic Rollercoaster and the D.C. Shutdown Showdown
Maggie, host of The Maggie Daun Show, dives into Wisconsin's economic landscape with labor economist Laura Dresser, revealing a post-pandemic recovery paired with worrying disparities.
October 2, 2025- More