Since the recession, Wisconsin household income has plummeted, according to new figures released yesterday by the Census Bureau. Between 2006 and 2010, median household income in Wisconsin dropped by about $3,600, or 7 percent.

In yesterday’s blog post, we discussed how child poverty rose faster in Wisconsin than it did nationally. The same trend is played out in the median household income statistics. Back in 2006, Wisconsin’s median household income was actually about $250 higher than the national average, and we ranked 19th among the states. But during the recession, Wisconsin’s income dropped faster than the national average, a trend illustrated in the chart below. In 2010, Wisconsin’s median household income was about $1,000 lower than the national average and we ranked 22nd among the states. In comparison, Minnesota ranked 12th among the states and had a household income $2,100 higher than Wisconsin in 2010.

Some Wisconsin counties were particularly hard hit by the recession. Residents of Wood County saw their median household income drop $9,600 between 2007 and 2010 (adjusted for inflation), a dismaying 18 percent decrease. Five other Wisconsin counties saw double digit percentage decreases in their median household income since 2007: Jefferson (-14 percent), Marathon (-12 percent), Washington (-12 percent), Sheboygan (-10 percent), and Milwaukee (-10 percent).

Many of these counties with especially significant drops in income also had big increases in overall poverty and child poverty. Jefferson County seems to be especially hard hit, with a child poverty rate that increased from 4 percent in 2007 to 20 percent in 2010.

Yesterday’s Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel included an article on the loss of income for Wisconsin households, which profiled workers who had experienced a drop in income and explored the resulting hardships. The article quotes a University of Wisconsin researcher saying, “The pain is out there…the middle class is taking a beating.”

Tamarine Cornelius