Episode 21: Dean Baker interviews Laura Dresser, Associate Director of Wisconsin’s High Road Strategy Center, about the power of state and local policy to improve working people’s lives. They discuss how Wisconsin’s anti-union legislation devastated labor organizing, successful state-level initiatives on minimum wage and community college programs, and the potential for progressive policies on childcare, transportation, and education when federal action is blocked.

About Laura Dresser

Laura Dresser (MSW, PhD, University of Michigan; BA, Rice University) is Associate Director of High Road Strategy Center. A labor economist and expert on low-wage work and workforce development systems, she has both written about ways to build stronger labor market systems and worked extensively with labor, business, and community leaders in building them. Laura has written about low-wage jobs, care work, inequality and labor market reform.