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“Improving Health Outcomes for All Through Local Policy Making”. The Municipality – Your Voice. Your Wisconsin, League of Wisconsin Municipalities, 2018.
First featured in the March 2018 Community Health issue of The Municipality – Your Voice. Your Wisconsin. Published by the League of Wisconsin Municipalities.
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Dresser, L., and J. Rodriguez. Wisconsin’s Extreme Racial Disparity Vast Chasm Separates Whites and African Americans in the State. COWS, 2017.
Wisconsin has the regrettable distinction of ranking among the worst states in the nation in terms of racial equality. Various aspects of the disparity – from education to jobs and income to incarceration – have been documented consistently for more than a decade. These disparities are gaining increasing attention from activists and policy makers. Even so, and despite considerable local and statewide efforts to close these gaps, too few in Wisconsin understand the way that Wisconsin’s level of racial inequality is, in fact, dramatically more pronounced than in other states.
DocumentWisconsin’s Extreme Racial Disparity seeks to support and fuel the efforts of so many who are organizing, strategizing and working to close the gap.
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Criminalizing hard working families and falling into irrational fear harms all Wisconsin families and the Wisconsin economy. Immigrants are a core part of the Wisconsin economy and contributing to this state through taxes, education, and self-owned businesses. The state should be pursuing ways to welcome and build the skills of this community.
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,. Wisconsin Job Watch - First Quarter 2017. COWS, 2017.
After an inconsistent 2016, Wisconsin started off 2017 with a modest job growth across the first quarter. January through March, the state added 12,800 jobs. The growth was concentrated in January and February and offset job losses of 3700 jobs in March. Over the quarter, private sector creation compensated for the loss of almost 7000 jobs in the public sector. Additionally, the unemployment rate continues to edge down nationally and in Wisconsin. Unemployment in Wisconsin stands now at 3.4%, significantly below the level of the end of 2016.
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Dresser, L., and J. Rogers. The State of Working Wisconsin 2017: Facts & Figures. COWS, 2017.
For more than two decades now, annually, on Labor Day, COWS reports on how working people are faring in the state. The State of Working Wisconsin, released biannually on even-numbered years since 1996, is our long-form report, and looks at the economy comprehensively from a working-family perspective. In odd-numbered years, also biannually, we provide a more abbreviated and focused report.
DocumentIn this year’s report, we provide our overview of some of the most critical issues facing working people in the state. The issues, taken together, are daunting – slow growth in the Wisconsin labor market, long-term stagnation in wages, extreme black/white disparity, increasing income inequality, and declining unionization. The report provides a chance to take stock of what the data say about working people in Wisconsin.
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, W. B. P. and C. Pulling Apart 2017: Focus on Wisconsin’s 1 Percent. COWS, 2017.
The income gap between the rich and the poor remains near its highest level ever, according to this report by the Wisconsin Budget Project and COWS. The wide chasm between the very highest earners and everyone else poses hardships for Wisconsin’s families, communities, and businesses.
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Dresser, L., J. Rodriguez, and M. Meder. When Work Is Not Enough: Toward Better Policy to Support Wisconsin’s Working Families. COWS, 2017.
In Wisconsin, policy makers seem to increasingly assume that work, and work alone, can provide a decent standard of living. However, working families continue to face a slew of challenges – low wages, inadequate benefits, insufficient hours – generated by the very jobs that are supposed to be the answer. This report highlights the disconnect between state policies and the realities of Wisconsin families working in jobs at or near the poverty line.
The landscape of public support systems is changing in the state of Wisconsin, in the direction of making benefits more difficult to access for people who toil in bad jobs or cannot secure employment at all. A sharp turn toward more accessibility by redesigning the work requirements and better understanding the nature of bad jobs is needed.
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Berth, R., L. Dresser, and E. Ubert. Moving Apprenticeship into Manufacturing’s Future: Industrial Manufacturing Technician. COWS, 2017.
This report offers the story of apprenticeship innovation which is remaking apprenticeship for the new and rapidly evolving manufacturing sector.
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Dresser, L., J. Rogers, and J. Rodriguez. State of Working Wisconsin 2016. COWS, 2016.
The State of Working Wisconsin 2016 uses the best and recent data available on jobs and wages to describe the economic challenges that Wisconsin continues to face.
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Dresser, L., J. Rodriguez, and M. Meder. Wisconsin’s Child Care Workforce. COWS, 2016.Document
Wisconsin’s Child Care Workforce focuses on teachers and assistant teachers working at child care centers and self-employed family child care providers throughout the state. It draws on a 2015 survey developed and conducted by the University of Wisconsin Survey Center (UWSC) and COWS. Information about child care teachers and assistant teachers was obtained through a survey of child care center directors. Information about family providers was obtained via a survey sent to these providers. The response rate for both centers and family providers was over 60 percent and the samples are representative geographically and in terms of the quality of child care in Wisconsin.