For Labor Day State of Working Wisconsin 2019: Facts & Figures This Labor Day, with the memory of the Great Recession of 2007 now fading, workers across Wisconsin have good news to celebrate. The unemployment rate in the state has been consistently low and the economy is steadily adding jobs. These are important measures for working people’s lives. When jobs are more available, not only is it easier to secure a job, it is also easier to get the hours of work you want, to be able to ask for time-off you need, and to make ends meet. Even so, many working families in the state feel stressed and stretched: wages are stagnant, income inequality continues to worsen (thanks in part to state tax policy), and union membership is on a sharp decline.  “This Labor Day, we provide another year of data showing long-term wage stagnation and growing inequality,” stated Joel Rogers, COWS Director. “The richest Wisconsinites increasingly reap the greatest rewards of growth. Creating more broadly shared prosperity requires stronger public policy focused on equality and equity.” Read full report here. About COWS COWS is a nonprofit think-and-do tank, based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which promotes “high road” solutions to social problems. These treat shared growth and opportunity, environmental sustainability, and resilient democratic institutions as necessary and achievable complements in human development. Through our various projects, we work with cities around the country to promote innovation and the implementation of high road policy. COWS is nonpartisan but values-based. We seek a world of equal opportunity and security for all.