All Publications

This report estimates the number of families who are not making ends meet. We examine the cost of living in every U.S. community and determine basic family budgets for various family types in each one. In all, over 400 separate basic family budgets for six family types are generated. We then count the number of working families in each state whose incomes fall below these basic budgets. Next we examine the hardships these families experience. Finally, we explore how the U.S. can create a social safety net that recognizes that work is not always enough to help families meet their basic needs.

A report prepared for the Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership (WMEP), this report analyzes supplier upgrading, evolving OEM-supplier relations, and directions for future manufacturing modernization policy and research in Wisconsin.

This report is a follow up to Common Problems and Collaborative Solutions, a study of the changing relations between original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and their suppliers, with special focus on participants in the Supplier Training Program (STP) activities of the Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Program (WMEP), as led by the OEM principals of the Supplier Training Consortium (STC).

A report about the growth of Latino workers within Dane county. This report finds that Latino workers suffer from low wages, poor benefits, inconsistent work, outright discrimination and suspicion, and lack of access to basic services that many of us take for granted. The result is a constant struggle to make ends meet, while at the same time supporting relatives in their countries of origin. Documents include both the Full Report and a Summary.

As part of COWS evaluation of the Local Child Care Wage Initiative, COWS conducted interviews with some fifty child care center directors, teachers, and in-home care providers. This second report highlights the interviews and discussions with the child care workforce about work and wages.

The State of Working Wisconsin: Update 2001 is a brief investigation of the effects of the recent economic slowdown on workers in the state, as well as offering for the first time data on family hours of work and workers’ benefits, in addition to standard data on wages, unemployment and job growth.

Wisconsin has the second most racially tilted criminal justice system in the country. Three UW- Madison law school professors put their heads together to illustrate the problem and point toward some solutions.

Sustaining Wisconsin Editorial
September 17, 2001

Reissued by The Nation (web edition, www.thenation.com, November 27, 2001).