On January 16, WVCBP Executive Director Ted Boettner presented to the West Virginia Workforce Development Board on policy recommendations that could boost wages and prosperity in the Mountain State. View full presentation.
Income and Work
West Virginia has historically had one of the lowest labor force participation rates in the country. The labor force participation rate (LFPR) is the share of people 16 years or older either working or seeking work. A healthy LFPR is a key driver of a society’s economic output per capita and overall standard of living in…
West Virginia has one of the largest gender pay gaps in the nation and the highest of all surrounding states, according to Climbing the Mountain: Closing the Gender Pay Gap in West Virginia, a new West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy report. PDF of report. The report shows shows in 2017, women working full-time, year round in West…
A new report by the Institute for Women's Policy Research finds that 30 percent of working families (age 19-64) in West Virginia are economically insecure, which means they don't make enough money to meet basic monthly expenses (food, transportation, housing, utilities, etc.) and reach modest financial goals. The economic insecurity measures takes into account working adults that…
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. State of Rural West Virginia shows rural West Virginians primarily have…
State and local tax systems can be effectively used to boost economic opportunity, create broadly shared prosperity and build equitable state economies. But in most states, including West Virginia, tax systems are upside down and are making inequality worse, as a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows. The ITEP report examines the state…
West Virginia made headlines in recent months with a strong quarter of personal income growth. While some media outlets and politicians took the data as further evidence of the so-called "West Virginia comeback," subsequent releases of personal income data show that the strong quarter was more likely an anomaly than a sign of a trend. West Virginia's total personal income…
The Bureau of Business and Economic Research at West Virginia University released its annual Economic Outlook Report for the state earlier this month. West Virginia is expected to experience slow job growth, with employment forecasted to grow at an average rate of 0.4 percent per year for the next five years, according to the report's forecast. That's…
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…
West Virginia can create a more prosperous state if the strength of working families and the policies that support them become a priority. This is according to a West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy report that details seven policies to reverse the top-down approach that has left the average West Virginian behind. Since 2006, West Virginia…