Equal Pay in Wisconsin

In honor of Equal Pay Day, here's a guide to research tools for locating information on the status of equal pay in Wisconsin.

Finding Legislative Information

Two weeks ago, Governor Walker signed a bill to repeal Wisconsin’s 2009 Equal Pay Enforcement Act, which provided a means for awarding compensatory and punitive damages (in addition to back pay) to employment discrimination victims. The full text of both the repeal and the 2009 Act are available in Wisconsin Legislative Documents, along with related information such as fiscal estimates and voting records.

Finding Income Data

The graph below uses data from the 2010 American Community Survey, which is available in American FactFinder, an online tool for browsing data collected by the Census Bureau. Click on the graph for a bigger version.

SOPA and PIPA: the bills behind Wikipedia's blackout

If you were planning to use Wikipedia to get a head start on this semester’s papers, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow. The crowd-sourced encyclopedia is staging a 24-hour blackout to protest SOPA and PIPA (the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act and the Senate’s Protect Intellectual Property Act). Wikipedia, Google, and other tech giants opposing the bill claim that it would hinder innovation and infringe on freedom of speech. According to Rep. Zoe Lofgren, whose California district includes much of Silicon Valley, SOPA “would mean the end of the internet as we know it.”

Meanwhile, major media companies, including the Motion Picture Association of America and several record labels, support the bills' efforts to curb the theft of U.S. intellectual property. Rupert Murdoch characterized opponents of SOPA and PIPA as “Silicon valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery.”

One way to see past the hyperbole is to read the text of the bills themselves. Using THOMAS, a database from the Library of Congress, you can find the full text of a bill, along with summaries, revisions, amendments, CBO cost estimates, and a list of sponsors; you can also track the bill’s progress through the legislative process. Search for the bills by number or name (not abbreviation), or follow these links:

• Stop Online Piracy Act
• Protect Intellectual Property Act

THOMAS contains summaries of bills from 1973 through the current Congress, and the full text of bills from 1989 through the current Congress. For earlier years, print copies of many bills are available through Lane Library’s government documents collection.

The data behind "We are the 99%"

As a rallying cry and internet meme, the slogan “We are the 99%” has spotlighted the Occupy movement’s protest against the political influence of the wealthy, and promoted empathy with stories of economic hardship. Underneath these figurative uses, the phrase is a reference to real data on increasing economic inequality in the United States.

Lane Library’s government documents collection is a good place to find that data. As a federal depository library, we receive print copies of government publications and facilitate access to materials published online.

Where to find income data:
These agencies have different data collection methods, each with its own limitations (hence the discrepancies).

• IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Division (Call number: T 22.35/4)

In 2008, 20% of the total Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) went to the top 1%. (SOI Bulletin—Individual Income Tax Rates and Tax Shares, Table 5)

• The U.S. Census Bureau’s income data and reports

In 2008, 21.5% of aggregate income went to the top 5% of households. (Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement, Table H-2: All Races)

• Trends in the Distribution of Household Income Between 1979 and 2007 (a Congressional Budget Office report based on both Census and IRS data)

After-tax household income for the 1% with the highest income grew by 275%, compared to 62% growth overall. This growth disparity has increased income inequality.

Where to find wealth data:

• The Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF)
• Congressional Research Service Report on the Concentration of Household Wealth (based on SCF data)

In 2004, the top 1% held 33.4% of the nation’s wealth.

Tools for finding this information:

USA.gov. The official search engine for government publications.

FedStats. A portal to statistics from federal agencies.

American FactFinder. A database of census information.

OpenCRS.A searchable collection of Congressional Research Service reports that have been released to the public.