Since 2001, the share of industries in Connecticut that typically pay low wages has increased by 20 percent, while high-wage industry employment has decreased by 13 percent, according to a report by independent research and advocacy group Connecticut Voices for Children (CVC).
Workers from racial and ethnic minorities and those without a college degree face unemployment rates three times those of whites in Connecticut, the group said.
“Changes in the state economy pose challenges for low-wage workers seeking to give their children the best possible start in life,” said CVC Executive Director Ellen Shemitz.
“Connecticut”™s jobs swap has implications for individual family economic well-being and for the state”™s overall revenue sufficiency,” added CVC Fiscal Policy Fellow and co-author of the report Derek Thomas. “The first decade in the 21st century ”“ which includes the loss of manufacturing jobs in the early 2000s as well as the vast job losses during the Great Recession ”“ has left the state with a sizeable high-wage jobs deficit.”
The report recommends five key policy initiatives: restoring the earned income tax credit for low income workers to its original 2011 levels to allow low-wage workers to retain more of what they have earned; raising the minimum hourly wage from the current $9.60 to $15; expanding high-quality early childhood education to remove barriers to employment for parents and better prepare future generations of workers; strengthening infrastructure investments to ensure economic competitiveness and economy-boosting jobs; and reforming property taxes for a more equitable education system.
