We’ve been measuring the wrong things – and workers are fed up
“Workers Strike” is becoming an increasingly common headline as the casino workers in Detroit join the UAW, health care workers and more across our state. How can this be when unemployment is again near record lows, workforce participation is up, and inflation is coming down? These glowing measures, that are touted by politicians, businesses, and economists, are clear indications of…
Mapping and addressing the “benefit cliff” in Michigan
This post summarizes a short report we wrote on the benefit cliff in Michigan, which can be found here: Mapping and Addressing Benefit Cliffs in Michigan In early 2023, Senator Kristen McDonald-Rivet established a working group to explore the so-called “benefit cliff,” and its impact on Michigan families. Most public benefits (SNAP benefits, housing assistance, cash assistance) are “means tested,”…
Explaining Michigan’s economic well-being decline
Michigan's per capita income in 2022 was 13 percent below the national average, the lowest compared to the nation ever. The state ranked 39th. (For those who prefer median household income as a measure of economic well being, Michigan ranks 37th.) Michigan is now structurally one of the nation's poorest states. This, of course, is the exact opposite of Michigan…
Michigan’s missing young adults
There’s a lot of attention right now on the state’s population. We’re not attracting and retaining enough young people, our workforce is aging, and our economy is sputtering. In response to these challenges, the governor has formed the Growing Michigan Together Council, primarily tasked with identifying a set of recommendations for how to grow the state’s population. Seeing as how…
Why Michigan needs the Working Parents Tax Credit
Two years ago, the Michigan Future, Inc. Board proposed that the state expand its Earned Income Tax Credit tenfold. Going from a six percent match of the federal credit to sixty. This was at a time, when despite unprecedented federal funding and a multi-billion-dollar state budget surplus, expanding the EITC was on no one’s agenda. The rationale for this transformational…