A new Economic Policy Institute report highlights how Southern lawmakers have wielded the power of the state to protect and support businesses and the wealthy at the expense of working people and families.  

Southern state lawmakers have consistently made policy choices weakening enforcement of workplace wage, hour, and safety laws. They have sought to limit access to social safety net programs, failed to invest in child care, refused to protect renters and homeowners, and deprioritized safe, reliable, and climate-friendly transportation policies while giving away public funds to corporate polluters.  

As a result, the South is home to the nation’s weakest social safety net, the lowest wages, and the most anti-worker policies. These policies weaken the labor market power and jobs options for low-income families, contribute to income and wealth inequality, and fail to raise adequate revenue for public goods and services. Southern lawmakers have then frequently responded to revenue shortfalls with additional regressive forms of revenue generation like fees and fines, while providing tax cuts and economic development subsidies to businesses with the claim that such benefits to businesses will “trickle down” to the public at large. They also use the failure of such policies as a pretext to shrink the public sector and outsource core government functions to private companies motivated by profit as opposed to effectiveness or equity. 

The report is the last in a series, “Rooted in racism and economic exploitation,” that takes a deep dive into the failed Southern economic development model. Previous reports have illustrated the South’s economic underperformance and poor job quality.   

“Southern lawmakers have neglected basic worker protections and disinvested in social safety net programs while offering hefty subsidies to corporations, privatizing public goods, and giving the wealthy big tax breaks. The racism and anti-worker sentiments that have influenced economic policymaking in the South for generations must be uprooted and replaced by new policies centered on empowering and investing in workers, families, and communities,” said Nina Mast, EPI policy and economic analyst.