EARN in Kentucky

Kentucky Network publications

• Beyond Kentucky’s low unemployment rate: How workers are really faring this Labor Day?

  • August 30, 2019
  • Kentucky Center for Economic Policy
  • Anna Baumann

  Op-Ed: “The longest economic recovery on record and a state unemployment rate of 4.3% sounds like a strong foundation for Kentuckians’ prosperity. But a close look at the numbers this Labor Day shows an economy in which many Kentucky communities still lack jobs, especially quality jobs families need to thrive.”

  Gender Wage Gap Jobs Minimum Wage Racial Wage Gap State of Working X Wages

• Kentucky’s Changing Labor Force Participation, Explained

  • August 27, 2019
  • Kentucky Center for Economic Policy
  • Dustin Pugel

  With the economy now experiencing the longest recovery on record, there is a temptation among some to overstate the strength of the labor market and even cast blame on workers if they are not currently employed. Measures like the labor force participation rate are often misused to support those claims. But a close look at […]

  State of Rural XX State of Working X

• Lopsided Recovery Continues to Leave Out Eastern Part of State

  • August 13, 2019
  • Kentucky Center for Economic Policy
  • Jason Bailey

  A recovering economy since the Great Recession has bypassed much of rural Kentucky and especially the eastern and northeastern regions of the state. Those conditions magnify the harm from current and proposed cuts to safety net programs like nutrition assistance and Medicaid, and make critical the need for new policies that effectively create jobs.

  State of Rural XX

• Average Kentucky Worker’s Paycheck Not Yet Benefitting from Growing Economy

  • July 1, 2019
  • Kentucky Center for Economic Policy
  • Ashley Spalding

  With all of the claims about how great the economy is right now, the data shows that the average Kentuckian’s wages remained flat in 2018, continuing the trend of nearly the last two decades. Unemployment is certainly lower than it’s been in a long time and the job market continues to tighten in parts of […]

  Wages

• Manufacturing Job Growth Has Slowed in Kentucky Since Passage of “Right-To-Work”

  • June 27, 2019
  • Kentucky Center for Economic Policy
  • Anna Baumann

  Manufacturing job losses in recent decades have hurt Kentucky communities. Two recessions and trade policies that have encouraged outsourcing and made American goods more expensive relative to other countries’ have led to the loss of these relatively high-quality jobs which once provided a decent standard of living for more Kentuckians. Despite the claims of proponents […]

  So-Called "Right-to-Work"

• Manufacturing Job Growth Has Slowed in Kentucky Since Passage of “Right-To-Work”

  • June 27, 2019
  • Kentucky Center for Economic Policy
  • Anna Baumann

  Manufacturing job losses in recent decades have hurt Kentucky communities. Despite the claims of proponents of “Right-To-Work” (RTW), which was enacted in Kentucky in 2017, employment data suggests the policy hasn’t led to a hiring boom in manufacturing.

  Jobs Manufacturing So-Called "Right-to-Work"

• Record-Breaking Failure to Raise the Minimum Wage Is Holding Back Kentucky

  • June 20, 2019
  • Kentucky Center for Economic Policy
  • Jason Bailey

  This week marks the longest period in history the federal government has failed to increase the minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009. Because Kentucky has not increased its own minimum beyond that same level — unlike 29 other states — wages at the bottom remain stagnant and far too […]

  Minimum Wage

• Systemic Barriers Continue to Hold Back Wages and Employment for Kentuckians of Color

  • June 19, 2019
  • Kentucky Center for Economic Policy
  • Dustin Pugel

  On the 154th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, barriers to thriving for black Kentuckians are still deeply entrenched. Data on wages and unemployment in Kentucky show that discrimination and systemic racism still hold us back as a state.

  Racial Wage Gap

• Systemic Barriers Continue to Hold Back Wages and Employment for Kentuckians of Color

  • June 19, 2019
  • Kentucky Center for Economic Policy
  • Dustin Pugel

  On the 154th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, barriers to thriving for black Kentuckians are still deeply entrenched. Data on wages and unemployment in Kentucky show that discrimination and systemic racism still hold us back as a state.

  Racial Wage Gap State of Working X

• Op-Ed: The Problem is Bad Jobs, Not Bad Workers

  • September 21, 2018
  • Kentucky Center for Economic Policy
  • Ashley Spalding

  A full 30 percent of Kentuckians are working jobs that pay less than $12.50 an hour; fewer than half working in the private sector have an employer-sponsored retirement plan and just 44 percent have employer-sponsored health insurance. In economically distressed regions, even bad jobs are scarce. Yet we often hear that the problem facing Kentucky […]

  Jobs Wages