Laura Dresser, associate director of the COWS economic think tank at UW–Madison, said women in the workforce feel the effects of that most. “Moms tend to carry the burden of care disproportionately in families,” she said. “The years before the kid goes to school … are really expensive years to work.”

Labor Spring 2023 brought together workers, including student workers, from Madison and Milwaukee on Saturday to share their experiences organizing in their workplaces. The event took place at The Crossing Campus Ministry and served as a hotbed for different labor efforts, with discussions on motivations for labor organizing as well as the fight for fair …

A low unemployment rate is certainly good news for people looking for a job, but today’s guest says “it matters for all workers, because when the line at the door is short, it means they have more leverage to make more of their jobs.” Laura Dresser, Associate Director of COWS, says this is an opportunity …

Laura Dresser, associate director of the COWS economic think tank at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, said another approach could be addressing the issues that prevent people from joining the workforce, like child care, transportation and mental health. “The central question is: Do we support workers and … (build a) system that supports their engagement in …

Laura Dresser, the associate director of COWS, says, “What you’re really seeing is what’s going on in the bottom of the labor market is quite substantially different from what’s going on in better jobs.” What compounds the difference between the lower or higher paying jobs is the “bad jobs” most often lack benefits like health …

“Milwaukee has become a center of low-wage workers,” says Peter Rickman, President of MASH, the Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Organization, which partnered with COWS on the study. “It was once one of the best for wage levels.”

Despite unemployment remaining low, Laura Dresser, associate director of the COWS economic think tank at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, said increased layoffs are tied to the Federal Reserve’s efforts to curb inflation by raising interest rates.

In its “Facts from the Frontline” report, COWS highlights the declining share of manufacturing employees making up the region’s workforce, as well as falling union membership and rising income inequality along racial lines.

Laura Dresser, associate director of the COWS economic think tank at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, said the rise of unaccompanied minors crossing the southern border has played a role in the rise in child labor. “Companies are systematically taking advantage of underage immigrant workers who probably don’t have status and often don’t have family with …

Laura Dresser, COWS associate director, says requiring developing entities to create favorable conditions for workers has happened too infrequently. She says, “We have normalized in this nation throwing money at stadium deals and the owners of teams in order to keep them in cities. But we have not normalized demanding anything for that money.”