Wisconsins Growing Income Inequality

The Center on Wisconsin Strategy and the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families released an analysis showing that the gap between the rich and poor is growing in Wisconsin. While Wisconsin still fares much better than the national average and most other states, it has been moving in the wrong direction over the last number of years.

The analysis found that households with the highest incomes in Wisconsin increased their wealth by 36 percent between the late 1980s and the mid 2000s, compared with a 7 percent growth in income for the poorest households and 14 percent for middle-income households. It also shows that Wisconsin has the 11th most equal distribution of income nationwide, but that is up from the 1990’€™s when we had the 5th most equal distribution.

Wisconsin has a long history of economic equality, but these findings demonstrate that it is in a clear decline. The report suggests several common sense strategies to help get Wisconsin back on track.

Raising the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation.

Improving workers skills and education.

Expanding subsidized childcare and health care for low-income workers.

Updating unemployment insurance.

Making taxes more progressive.

You can read the full report HERE.