Connecticut”™s wage gap has grown since the recession and through the recovery, according to a new study, with the highest-income workers enjoying compensation growth four times that of those earning the median wage.
Connecticut is increasingly becoming a state of “haves and have-nots,” stated Connecticut Voices for Children. The organization collaborated on the study with the Economic Policy Institute of Washington, D.C.
“The recession and recovery have worsened opportunity gaps and set us on an economically devastating course,” said Orlando Rodriguez, senior policy fellow at Connecticut Voices and co-author of the report, in a prepared statement. “We can no longer afford to delay action.”
Connecticut”™s median wage grew 2.4 percent between 2006 and 2011, after adjustments for inflation. For those workers earning wages above the 90th percentile, however, wages grew by 11 percent over the period. In contrast, those Connecticut workers with pay below the 10th percentile saw their wages fall 0.2 percent.
Voices for Children said the state is continuing a trend in which it is losing high-paying manufacturing jobs, with the gap filled by lower-paying jobs in education, social services and health care.
