Laura Dresser, a labor economist and professor at UW-Madison, questions whether the tax cut addresses the most pressing challenges facing tipped workers.
Instead, Dresser argues that tipped workers face more fundamental issues, including limited access to benefits and hour/wage instability.
Shifting gears, they spotlight the dire situation of American childcare and elder care systems, with Laura Dresser emphasizing the need for public investment in these undervalued sectors. As they critique the inadequacies of federal incentives and Wisconsin’s stagnant minimum wage, they call for systemic change to support society’s most critical caregivers.
“It matters to say this is the standard that we are going to meet. This is what jobs should do,” said Laura Dresser, the associate director of High Road Strategy Center at UW Madison. Her research focuses on low-wage work and workforce development systems.
Laura Dresser, associate director of the High Road Strategy Center, tells WPR that market forces have driven many jobs to post wages around $15 or $16 an hour regardless of the state minimum wage. But Rep Hong says raising the wage floor would ensure that all workers are fairly compensated for their labor.
Wages for the lowest-paid workers in Wisconsin have risen faster than pay for higher earners in recent years, fueled by a tight labor market, according to a 2024 report from the High Road Strategy Center.
And with increasing focus in schools to be “college ready,” the Forward Academy is set to have a broader focus on all career paths, helping students prepare for a labor market that UW-Madison Associate Professor Laura Dresser said is filled with opportunity.
A recent report revealed that CEOs at Wisconsin’s 25 largest publicly traded companies make hundreds or thousands more than their workers do. We talk with an expert on labor about the disparity and what it means for the economy.
Laura Dresser, a clinical associate professor and associate director for UW-Madison think tank High Road Strategy Center, says this trend supports the notion that U.S. workers are increasingly interested in unions.
In this episode of Capitol Gains, hosts Matt Posner and James McIntyre sit down with University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Joel Rogers, a leading advocate for high road development. They explore how local governments can foster equitable growth through sustainable infrastructure, workforce development, and democratic participation. Joel shares insights on the challenges cities face when financing resilience projects and how to break down silos between finance, resilience, and other departments to create long-term solutions.
The workers who’ve fared the best in recent years were the state’s lowest earners, whose wage growth has outpaced Wisconsin’s highest earners, according to a recent report from the High Road Strategy Center, a worker-focused economic think tank at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
