We are a national think-and-do tank that promotes “high road” solutions to social problems.

In 2024, COWS became the High Road Strategy Center! Learn more.

The State of Working Wisconsin 2024 is live!

High Road Strategy Center releases The State of Working Wisconsin 2024!

In celebration of Wisconsin workers, the High Road Strategy Center released the The State of Working Wisconsin 2024. Our report analyzes the most recent data available on wages, jobs, and unions, and, this year, provides a special feature on women workers. We have been releasing this report since 1996 to provide clear information on the economy as experienced by the working people of the state. 

Check out The State of Working Wisconsin 2024

 

Ready to join us on the high road?

Contact us!

Sign up for updates!

 

High Road Strategy Center in the News

  • New report finds rising wages and declining unemployment in Wisconsin

    The economy and inflation have been top issues in this presidential election year. But a new report suggests that Wisconsin workers are doing relatively well and even exceeding expectations, despite inflation. The report released by the High Road Strategy Center at UW-Madison, found rising wages and declining unemployment in Wisconsin. "The labor market is strong in the sense that we've produced a lot of jobs —25,000 jobs over the past year—more today than in the past," says Laura Dresser, associate director of the center.

  • Madison Montessori school teachers file for union election

    In the child care sector specifically, unions are an anomaly, said Laura Dresser, a labor economist and associate director of the UW-Madison think tank High Road Strategy Center. “Child care unions are really rare in Wisconsin … and unions are rare in child care nationally as well,” Dresser said.

  • Report: WI economy rises on strength of workers’ wage growth

    A study by the High Road Strategy Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found the state's job market hit record levels in the second quarter and the inflation-adjusted median hourly wage has increased by 97 cents. Laura Dresser, associate director of the High Road Strategy Center at the University of Wisconsin Madison and the report's co-author, said the increase in the median wage is just making up for the period inflation ran ahead of earnings in 2022.

  • More