“…no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages
to its workers has any right to continue in this country.”

Franklin Roosevelt 
1938 Fair Labor Standards Act – minimum wage: 25 cents

The whole subject of minimum wage laws and their effects on local and regional economies is a contentious one. We’re at an important juncture in the debate now because a number of municipalities have recently passed ordinances to raise minimum wages. So we have some natural experiments we can watch over the next few years. While we’re waiting for those efforts to play out, though, we can turn to a large number of highly respected studies of the matter to see whether raising a minimum wage is, as its critics claim, a “job killer.”

The Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS) comprehensive study, Raising the Minimum Wage to $10.10 per hour in Wisconsin, found that

increasing the minimum wage does not “kill jobs.” 600 economists, including seven Nobel prize winners and eight past presidents of the American Economic Association, have called for an increase in the minimum wage. Their letter sums up the case on jobs: ‘In recent years there have been important developments in the academic literature on the effect of increases in the minimum wage on employment, with the weight of evidence now showing that increases in the minimum wage have had little or no negative effect on the employment of minimum-wage workers, even during times of weakness in the labor market.’

This chart illustrates the disconnect between productivity and wages, and what wages would be had they kept pace with productivity.

Income Inequality Issues

January 23, 2014: Jon Peacock, Wisconsin Budget Project

In the third webinar in our Information for Activation Series, Jon Peacock, Project Director of the Wisconsin Budget Project, presented "The Collision between the War on Poverty and Recent Tax Policy Choices."

Watch the Webinar presentation: 

You can view his powerpoint here:

February 6, 2014: Mike Wilder, Wisconsin Jobs Now

On February 6, 2014, Mike Wilder,Community Coalition Organizer for Wisconsin Jobs Now, held a webinar entitled "Why Raising the Minimum Wage Will Help Economic Growth."

Watch the entire presentation, including the question and answer session: 

Or view the slides: 

From the United States Census Bureau comes sobering news: median household income has continued to decline during the first three years of the Walker administration.

Historical Real Median Household Income for Wisconsin

By contrast, the comparable data for Minnesota looks like this:

Historical Real Median Household Income for Minnesota

Real median household income in constant dollars in Minnesosta in 2012, while still lower than the median income before the Great Recession, has now surpassed median household income in 2010. In Wisconsin, median household income in 2012 is still lower than it was in 2010. The same story can be found in Iowa. And in many other states around the country.