10 States Where Wages Declined Last Decade

The past decade has largely been one of erosion for the U.S. economy: jobs lost, homes foreclosed on, gains in equality erased. And according to a new report from Policy Matters Ohio, wages too have declined in no less than 10 states, once adjusted for inflation.

"The first decade of the new millennium," Executive Director of Policy Matters Ohio Amy Hanauer, the author of the report, writes, "was a lost decade for America’s workers."

Not only has unemployment increased substantially since 2000, but wages, adjusted for inflation, have grown by just 3.3 percent as well. By comparison, between 1990 and 2000 wages increased by 5.74 percent. And in states like Ohio, Michigan and Alaska, wages have actually declined over the past ten years, according to the report.

Rising income inequality over the past three decades may be partially to blame, Hanauer writes. Indeed, according to The Atlantic, two of every three dollars of income growth went to the top 1 percent of Americans between 2002 and 2007. In Ohio, the state which saw the greatest decline in wages, only the top 10 percent of earners have seen income growth in the past decade.

But It's not only in these 10 states where wages have suffered. According to the Economic Policy Institute, inflation-adjusted wages for recent college graduates have declined by nearly a dollar per hour over the same time period.

Here are the 10 states who saw average wages decline over the past decade when adjusted for inflation, according to Policy Matters Ohio.

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Comments

[hhliebman]

11:55 AM on 09/16/2011

Your recent article on the 10 poorest states uses average wage. For example it cites average wages of $14 to $16 an hour. A much more telling statistic would be median wage. In many of the states that you reported on half the wage earners make less than $10 an hour.

[ghandiii]

03:19 PM on 09/09/2011

Duh...8 years of Bush Cheney...then 3 years of Obama up against the Elite Wealth Machine...is this really any suprise?? This has been the steady demise since Reaganomics...Uh...of or should i say "Suckitup" economics...

[afinch9]

03:16 PM on 09/10/2011

seems like a lot of blue states on the list.

[koos458]

11:53 AM on 09/28/2011

3 out of 10 is a lot?

[ynori]

11:26 PM on 09/08/2011

I feel bad for Ohio, but they keep electing Boehner over and over and over again. What has Boehner done for you lately, Ohio?

[vobox3343]

03:31 PM on 09/08/2011

Well, at least we know republican economic policies are working - you're making less, the rich making more.

[mrdpavo]

01:32 PM on 09/09/2011

Income inequality is the worst it has ever been in this country since the guilded age. Income equality was greatest in the 50s and 60s.

[ssassy78]

02:01 PM on 09/08/2011

"Right to Work" needs to add the remainder of their slogan:
"Right to Work Like Sharecroppers"

[afinch9]

10:46 PM on 09/14/2011

is illinois a right to work state Michigan? Minnesota? Ohio? I thought those were all union nanny states?

[StopMakingSense2]

01:33 PM on 09/08/2011

The republicans better get to work on the other states. Everyone has to share in their wave of prosperity that reckless tax cuts and deregulation have wrought..

[joshhump]

10:51 AM on 09/08/2011

Is it just me or is the South Carolina picture look like it was taken somewhere in New Mexico and they just photoshopped in the state flag?

[moonflowerjewelry]

10:32 AM on 09/08/2011

There are days on this site, and others, where I grow so tired of the bickering and who is to blame red vs. blue...

Don't buy if it's not made here. Sorry, that means squeeze every last bit of functionality out of your trendy electronics and your clothing. Write to companies en masse telling them that you WILL NOT spend money on items made overseas. Repair what you have. Can't have that, now can we (too much trouble)? We are all, left or right, complicit in our own demise if we do not control where our money goes.

[StopMakingSense2]

01:37 PM on 09/08/2011

When republicans do all they can to make sure nothing is made here good luck with that. If American workers would just accept the same pay as 3rd worlders then everything would be just rosy according to them. Does that mean our CEO's should do the same? Of course not. We will never achieve a serfdom society if we did that! The land of lost opportunity..

[GoodbyeRubyTuesday]

02:18 PM on 09/08/2011

And I will never understand why workers do not remind those people that constantly compare the U.S. wages/workers to China that.....China is a communist country!!

[afinch9]

03:18 PM on 09/10/2011

maybe it means that us workers aren't as productive?

[devildog21]

10:28 AM on 09/08/2011

I doubt there are ten states where wages rose over the last ten years. Since the inception or Reaganomics, aka trickle down, wages have been stagnant or fallen for over 30 years. Now we're just seeing the culmination of the results of the lousy trade deals that have also been made during the last couple decades.

All the talk I hear and articles I read and not one of them ever mentions what really needs to happen and that is taking the necessary steps to get those jobs back in this country. We need to eliminate tax breaks and start imposing higher taxes on imports and/or start using tarriffs to recover the lost revenue because of all the lost jobs. If that causes the prices to go higher on those products, it will open the door for competition by start ups in this country, which is the ONLY way our economy has a hope of recovery.

[redonthehead]

10:35 AM on 09/08/2011

The Hoover administration slapped tariffs on imports in the early 1930's in order to protect American jobs. That contributed to the Great Depression. You want to try it again?

[pantherburns]

10:52 AM on 09/08/2011

Your history is false.

[SoylentGreenIsPeople]

08:14 AM on 09/09/2011

Some Bad news for us.

How Obama is to the Right of Reagan on Trade

http://triplecrisis.com/how-obama-is-right-of-reagan-on-trade/

[devildog21]

10:24 AM on 09/09/2011

Why am I not surprised? Obama has surrounded himself with Clintonites, so there's no reason to believe he would be any smarter about trade than Clinton was.

[pollclaire]

09:55 AM on 09/08/2011

Since the 1970s, this is the same trend that's been demonstrated in every nation that adopts the deregulation-free trade agenda. It's an established fact that wages for 80-90% of the population fall, and wealth concentrates in the top 1%.

Every. Single. Time. No exceptions.

[blueken]

09:44 AM on 09/08/2011

Gee, I'm surprised my state in not in the top 10. Mass is one of the most liberal states in the union and we have Romney care. Just heard today we are adding $300 million to the rainy day fund. Surplus of tax revenue. I thought socialism was bad for business. Guess not. Who would have thunk. When you know the truth it's easy to spot the liars. That's my phrase for the day.

[pantherburns]

10:55 AM on 09/08/2011

Mass is a gas. Good wages, good jobs. And fewer con jobs than just about any state. Hooray.

[beachcat63]

05:31 PM on 09/09/2011

So you are a Mitt fan http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/aug/16/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-said-governor-he-built-rainy-day-fund/

[blueken]

08:55 AM on 09/12/2011

Well, just like the President, the governor doesn't write the law, he only signs it.

[Nutcase]

09:29 AM on 09/08/2011

Tennessee may have only had the second largest decline but it had the lowest average wage of the 10. The conservatives here seem determined to take us back to 1931.

[dayzee10]

09:51 AM on 09/08/2011

Wrong!!!!! The Retealibanbaggerican Party wants to take us back to the 1880's when it was everyone fighting for the few crumbs that fell from the industrial titans tables

[moonflowerjewelry]

10:27 AM on 09/08/2011

I concur! Good to see you, hope you and yours are well :-)

[Nutcase]

10:34 AM on 09/08/2011

Same to you. I haven't been gone. It's just old age slows me down.

[Hoosierbrad]

09:18 AM on 09/08/2011

It is absolutely no surprise that my state made the list. We have lost tens of thousands of good paying manufacturing jobs here, which have been replaced by jobs paying 50% or less. It is no wonder that our unemployment compensation owes the feds over a billion dollars - of course the Republican legislatures solution to that problem was to reduce payments to the unemployed.

[Exfl]

09:13 AM on 09/08/2011

We allow big box stores to sell goods made abroad without regard to whether those nations have child labor laws, environmental laws, use forced/prison labor etc. To compete, American businesses either move their manufacturing overseas and participate in this exploitation, or hire low wage temporary workers here. We can either level the playing field by using tariffs to prevent cheap unethically made goods from pushing American made goods out of the market or we can watch wages here continue to slide.

[greyhound2]

09:28 AM on 09/08/2011

The corporate and lobbyist owned congressmen radified these ridicilous trade agreements in its war against the middle class. Congress will never act to level the playing field as their owners like it just the way it is and will not allow them to do it.

[afinch9]

03:24 PM on 09/10/2011

if you didn't shop there they would go out of business.

[James Leo]

09:00 AM on 09/08/2011

Without "disposable income" there is no "demand" If we continue to believe that cheap,unsafe lead tainted products from China, are the answer to our problems, we are mistaken.