Chandra Childers, senior policy and economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), published research in April about the exploitation of Black workers in the South and ongoing efforts leading high rates of poverty, low economic mobility, and high levels of inequality for workers of all racial and ethnic backgrounds in most Southern states.
Another focus of hers is the auto manufacturing sector, how it relates to southern workers and typical right-to-work states, and how they compare with states without such laws. Workers essentially have lower earnings that become more exacerbated based on differences in the cost of living.
“What we’re seeing is job quality overall is worse and so not just that wages are lower, but the weight that the purchasing power of those wages are declining over time—and then workplaces themselves,” Childers said. “I think this reflects a lot of the opposition to regulating workplaces in some of these states, that workplaces themselves can be much less safe in right-to-work states.”
She said one of the most alarming aspects of her research is that many auto manufacturers moved into the South, partially because of the good-paying jobs they would create.
“But when we look at the wages over time, the purchasing power of those wages are declining,” she said. “So, if you take what workers were earning 10 years ago…wages are declining over time as they’re moving into these states.