A new study, named "The State of Working Oklahoma: The Uneven Recovery Leaves Many Behind" by the Tulsa based Community Action Project, reveals the state’s strong economic growth of recent years has failed to distribute its benefits widely across the state’s population. The study concludes that "positive economic trends, including increased production, rising profits and falling unemployment, have been accompanied by a declining standard of living for most Oklahoma wage earners and their families." “This State of Working Oklahoma report reveals the extent to which middle- and lower-income Oklahoma families are feeling the squeeze between stagnant incomes and rising costs,” said David Blatt, Director of Public Policy for the Community Action Project, which released the report. “Even during a period of overall economic prosperity, wages and incomes for most households are growing less rapidly than inflation”. One of the report’s key findings is that between 2001 and 2005, the median wage in Oklahoma, adjusted for inflation, declined by nearly 1 percent. Median household income declined 4.5 percent over the same period. At the same time, income inequality in Oklahoma has been rising as the distribution of total personal income in the state has declined for all income groups except those in the highest income percentile. Part of the decline in wages and income can be attributed to a profound structural change in the Oklahoma labor force in which many Oklahoma workers are losing jobs that offered higher wages and benefits in high-paying manufacturing and information sectors only to be forced to compete for lower wage job openings. “The impact of structural changes are felt not only in the loss of income but also in the accompanying loss of job security, health insurance and pension benefits for many workers”, noted Jim Alexander, an economist at CAP who authored the report along with Kenneth Kickham of the University of Central Oklahoma. As income has declined or stagnated for the typical, middle-class Oklahoma household, prices for medical care, gasoline and utilities have increased, including a nearly 60 percent increase in health insurance premiums between 2000 and 2006. The report concludes with several policy recommendations that the Legislature should consider for building opportunity and increasing security for working Oklahomans. The recommendations include expanding health insurance coverage, raising the state earned income tax credit, promoting savings for higher education, improving consumer protections on payday loans and promoting quality early childhood education. Posted at 1/23/2007 09:43:00 AM