Wisconsin Wages, 2019–2025: 16% at the 20th Percentile, 8% at the 80th
The High Road Strategy Center's annual State of Working Wisconsin report puts the state's median hourly wage at a record $26.17, up from $22.10 a decade earlier once inflation is accounted for. The distribution is the more interesting number. From 2019 to 2025, wages for workers at the 20th percentile rose 16%, compared with 8% for workers at the 80th percentile. The report frames that as strong growth for lower-wage workers reducing wage inequality — faster gains at the low end rather than an even lift across the scale.
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Read next to the report's labor-market sections, the wage gains look less like a whole-state success story: it says Wisconsin has actually lost jobs since January 2025 while national job growth continued, though slowly.
And wage growth at the low end doesn't answer who is being left out. The same report puts Wisconsin's Black unemployment rate at 7.2% in the first quarter of 2026, nearly three times the 2.3% white rate.