EARN in West Virginia
-
West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy
Charleston, West Virginia ·The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy is a policy research organization that is nonpartisan, nonprofit, and statewide. The Center’s research and analysis is designed to support informed public dialog and policy in West Virginia.
Read More
West Virginia Network publications
The State of Working West Virginia 2019: The State of WV’s Immigrants
- December 21, 2019
- West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy
- Sean O'Leary
West Virginia’s immigrants come from all over the world and while a small share of the populations, they are broadly represented throughout the state’s workforce and economy. Read PDF of report. But a fuller conversation about immigrants tends to be overshadowed by the controversy in the U.S. around immigration reform. This conversation all too often tends […]
State of Rural West Virginia
- October 23, 2018
- West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy
- Sean O'Leary, Rick Wilson, and Ted Boettner
West Virginia’s population is increasingly living in urban areas, with those urban areas experiencing all the state’s job growth in the past quarter century, leaving rural West Virginia behind in many key areas, according to a new West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy report. The report, State of Rural West Virginia, shows rural West Virginians primarily […]
Closing the Gender Pay Gap in West Virginia
- September 4, 2018
- West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy
- Staff
In 2016, West Virginia women earned just 72 cents on the dollar compared to their male counterparts. The median earnings of full-time male workers were $12,801 higher than the median earnings of full-time women workers – a 28 percent pay gap. West Virginia has the largest pay gap out of all the surrounding states and […]
State of Working West Virginia 2016
- December 12, 2016
- West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy
- Ted Boettner and Sean O'Leary
A persistent question for those who pondered West Virginia’s fate is a simple: why, in a state rich in natural resources, are West Virginians so poor? For more than a century several explanations have been developed by natives and interested “outsiders.” Read the full report. This report, the ninth annual investigation of The State of […]
High Road WIOA: Building Higher Job Quality into Workforce Development
- December 17, 2015
- Keystone Research Center
- Stephen Herzenberg
In response to the federal Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act (WIOA), most states are now in the latter stages of developing federally required plans and policies for operating their systems of workforce development under WIOA. This process creates an unprecedented opportunity to build into each state’s plan concrete ideas for using state and local workforce […]
State of Working West Virginia 2015
- November 9, 2015
- West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy
- Sean O'Leary and Ted Boettner
This report is the eighth in an annual series that examines the state of West Virginia’s economy. While previous editions examined data on employment, income, productivity, job quality and other aspects of the economy as they impact working people, this issue is an in-depth look at one specific economic measure – West Virginia’s labor force […]
Fast Facts: “Right-to-Work” Won’t Boost West Virginia’s Economy
- July 16, 2015
- West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy
- Ted Boettner
“Right-to-Work” laws do not guarantee jobs for workers. Instead they prohibit unions and employers from including a provision in contracts that requires employees who benefit from union representation to pay for their fair share toward those costs. PDF of Fast Facts. Some state lawmakers argue that if West Virginia adopted a so-called “right-to-work” (RTW) law […]
State of Working West Virginia 2014: Economic Recovery and Transition in the Mountain State
- September 30, 2014
- West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy
- Ted Boettner and Sean O'Leary
This report is the seventh in an annual series that examines the state of West Virginia’s economy as it impacts working people. Each year, we examine the latest available data on employment, income, productivity and job quality as well as the immediate economic challenges and opportunities. Read PDF of report. The themes have varied from […]
Keeping Families Healthy: West Virginia Earned Sick Days and Family Medical Leave
- July 28, 2014
- West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy
- Sean O'Leary and Ted Boettner
On July 24, 2014, the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, West Virginia FREE and the Service Employees International Union presented “Keeping Families Healthy: West Virginia Earned Sick Days and Family Medical Leave” at the Our Children Our Future Policy Workshop in Hurricane, WV. View the full presentation.
Giving West Virginia’s Workers a Raise: Increasing the State Minimum Wage
- October 2, 2013
- West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy
- Sean O'Leary
On April 14, 2013, the West Virginia House adopted HCR 107, expressing support for President Obama’s proposal to increase the minimum wage to $9.00 an hour and index it to inflation, in recognition of the decreasing value of the minimum wage and the idea that no one who works full-time should have to live in […]