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For jobs paying at least $50K a year in Wisconsin, about two-thirds require a college degree, according to a new report

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For jobs paying at least K a year in Wisconsin, about two-thirds require a college degree, according to a new report


About two in three jobs paying $50,000 a year or more in Wisconsin require some sort of college degree, according to new nonpartisan research. And that demand for a degree is expected to increase.

The nonprofit Wisconsin Policy Forum analyzed the state’s projected job openings from 2020 to 2030, how much those jobs pay and what type of degree is usually needed to get one. Released this month, the research puts Wisconsin-specific numbers to a national issue that lawmakers, educators and students alike are grappling with: how to make higher education accessible and affordable, especially given the time and money it takes to earn a degree.

An analysis by the University of Wisconsin-Madison found Wisconsin’s student loan debt is low compared to most other states. Federal student loans still directly affect more than a half-million Wisconsin residents — an estimated 715,800 people — for an average of $32,230 in loans each; that’s nearly one in four people in the labor force, according to 2020 data.

Wisconsin is incentivizing K-12 schools to create programs to give high schoolers experience firsthand with jobs and college before they graduate. In part, that’s in response to the cost of college and workforce shortages. More high schoolers statewide are participating in dual enrollment programs, for example, which allow them to earn free or low-cost college credits. State lawmakers have recently increased funding pools for youth apprenticeship and high school programs leading to credentials in high-demand jobs.

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The Wisconsin Policy Forum’s recently released report defines a “high-paying job” as paying at least $50,000 annually. That’s equivalent to $24.04 an hour, according to a wage calculator by financial company ADP. The definition of a “living wage” changes based on whom you ask, but a commonly cited calculator by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology defines it as $16.06 an hour, or just over $33,000 annually, for a single person or $35 an hour, or just under $73,000 annually, for household of one adult, and one child.

Either way, those wages are much higher than Wisconsin’s minimum wage of $7.25, or hourly pay for its most common, lowest-paying jobs. For example, school bus monitors are paid an average of $12.60 an hour; child care workers $13 and home health care aides $14.09, according to Wisconsin-specific data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

More: Wisconsin politicians have specific goals for careers-focused education. What are they?

Report: For jobs paying over 50K annually, 58% usually require a four-year degree

Whether because of retirements or career changes, job projections suggest an average of 357,000 positions need filling annually from 2020 to 2030.

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Most of those open jobs — three in four — don’t require a college degree and pay less than $50,000 a year.

The question of how to get a higher-paying job often comes down to training. Focusing their research just on jobs paying at least $50,000 annually, researchers from the Wisconsin Policy Forum found:

  • 58.1% of jobs generally required at least a four-year degree;
  • 5.9% generally required a two-year degree, certificate or technical diploma;
  • 36.1% generally required related training or experience, but not a traditional degree.

Of the most in-demand, higher-paying jobs in Wisconsin, the one most in demand through 2030 is nursing. The field sees more than 3,600 openings each year and pays an average annual salary of $73,540. Becoming a registered nurse at minimum requires a two-year degree associate’s degree, although many prospective nurses go through four-year degree programs.

Just 7% of job openings in Wisconsin pay at least $75,000 annually. Of those, 91% require at least a bachelor’s degree, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum analysis.

Still, 1 in 3 higher-paying jobs don’t come with requirements for traditional degree

Reading between the lines, the Wisconsin Policy Forum report suggests a substantial portion of jobs paying over $50,000 a year —  over one in three, or 36% — don’t require a college degree.

Five of the 10 most in-demand, higher-paying jobs in Wisconsin through 2030 fall into that category. They include:

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  • Sales representatives, such as in manufacturing and wholesale
  • Agricultural managers, such as farmers and ranchers
  • “First-line supervisors of production and operating workers,” a job title used by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to describe managers in several industries, such as manufacturing and retail
  • “First-line supervisors for office and administrative support workers,” another U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics title, which describes office or administrative managers in industries like manufacturing, transportation, business support or health care
  • Carpenters

Many high-paying jobs that don’t technically require a degree do require apprenticeships. That means they still come with time spent in a classroom and, often, years of on-the-job training.

Apprenticeships in Wisconsin are overseen by the Department of Workforce Development. State standards require apprentices to spend at least 144 hours taking classes related to their profession, usually through a technical college. Employers must also pay an hourly wage for an apprentice’s time learning in the classroom. The state does not require employers to cover tuition or per-credit costs, although many do in exchange for employment commitments.

More: What’s a good paying job in Milwaukee? These are the industries with the highest-paid workers

Cleo Krejci covers higher education, vocational training and retraining as a Report For America corps member based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact her at CKrejci@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @_CleoKrejci. Support her work with a tax-deductible donation at bit.ly/RFADonation.



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Wisconsin Weekend: Pride bar crawl, Father’s Day deals, and more

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Wisconsin Weekend: Pride bar crawl, Father’s Day deals, and more


MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee has no shortage of ways to celebrate this weekend, from a Pride bar crawl to Father’s Day deals around the city and Juneteenth celebrations.

Summerfest and Northcott Neighborhood House are hosting a Juneteenth celebration filled with music and culture at the Summerfest grounds.

Watch: Kidd O’Shea breaks down this weekend’s events:

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Wisconsin Weekend in a Minute: June 19-21

The event kicks off right after the traditional Juneteenth Day Festival wraps up.

Pride Bar Crawl

The 9th annual Pride Bar Crawl kicks off Saturday at 4 p.m. at Walker’s Pint.

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Tickets include drinks and access to exclusive specials at partner bars. Twenty percent of proceeds will benefit the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center.

The crawl wraps up with an after-party and drag show at La Cage Nightclub.

Father’s Day

On Sunday, The Motor Restaurant at the Harley-Davidson Museum is offering a free beer for dad when purchased with a meal, along with free admission to the museum. Reservations are highly encouraged.

Families can also take dad to the Milwaukee County Zoo, where all fathers receive free admission on Sunday.

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These Wisconsin swing voters say Trump’s war in Iran wasn’t worth it

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These Wisconsin swing voters say Trump’s war in Iran wasn’t worth it


Vessels are anchored along the Strait of Hormuz.

Amirhossein Khorgooei/ISNA/AFP via Getty Images


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Amirhossein Khorgooei/ISNA/AFP via Getty Images

The war in Iran was a costly blunder, according to swing voters in the battleground state of Wisconsin.

NPR observed two online focus groups on Tuesday featuring voters who supported Joe Biden in 2020 and then Donald Trump in 2024.

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President Trump had just announced a framework agreement to end the war, which he signed on Wednesday.

Yet among the focus groups’ 13 participants, no one said they thought the conflict with Iran was “worth it,” and nine said they felt that the U.S. is coming out of this conflict weaker than before.

Corey M., a 33-year-old independent voter, said he is concerned that the U.S. expended “so much financially and so much of our arsenal,” with little to show for it. (All participants agreed to be part of the focus groups on the condition that they be identified by their first name and last initial only.)

“We essentially got nothing out of it,” he said. “It’s hurt our economy and increased expenses for the everyday American, and it accomplished the square root of nothing.”

Focus groups are not scientifically significant like polling. But they provide insight into how Americans are thinking about what they see in the news.

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These focus groups — made up of 10 self-described independents, two Democrats and one Republican — were conducted by messaging and market research firms Engagious and Sago as part of the Swing Voter Project. NPR is a partner on the project.

Rich Thau, president of Engagious, moderated the focus groups. He has been asking voters in key states about this conflict since March. And he said voters have been consistent.

“They were never on board,” Thau said. “Not the beginning. Not in the middle. And as we just learned, not at the end either, judging from what we heard from Wisconsin swing voters.”

Sam M., a 30-year-old independent, said from what he read about the deal, it wasn’t leaving the U.S. in a better position than before the war. In fact, he said he thought the Iran nuclear deal brokered by the Obama administration — which Trump backed out of — was a better deal for the United States.



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President of Wisconsin’s largest mosque released from ICE custody

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President of Wisconsin’s largest mosque released from ICE custody


A federal judge has ordered the release of the president of Wisconsin’s largest mosque, after finding that immigration officials probably detained him in retaliation against his public advocacy for Palestinian rights, suppressing his first amendment rights in the process.

The US district judge James Patrick Hanlon’s order on Thursday marked a sharp rebuke against Trump officials, including the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who had tried to paint Salah Sarsour as a national security threat.

“Salah Sarsour, who has lived in this country for more than three decades and served as a core pillar in his community without any issues, should never have been detained in the first place,” his legal team wrote in a statement. “While we continue to fight these baseless claims in court, today is about celebrating a family being reunited. It is also a sober reminder that, if the government can target Mr Sarsour, everyone’s free speech rights are at risk.”

Sarsour describes himself as a stateless Palestinian, according to the order. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says that he is a Jordanian citizen. He has lived in the United States for more than three decades, becoming a legal permanent resident in 1998. Immigration officials approved Sarsour’s citizenship application decades ago, though he did not naturalize.

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Sarsour has garnered public attention as a champion for Palestinian rights, and serves as a board member of an advocacy group called American Muslims for Palestine.

But Rubio personally signed off on a memo to the DHS last year describing Sarsour as deportable despite his green card, because “his actions undermine US foreign policy to combat antisemitism around the world”. The memo, cited in Hanlon’s order, accuses Sarsour’s group of being “found to have been involved in activities providing funds to Hamas”.

A group of plainclothes ICE officers from at least 10 unmarked vehicles swarmed Sarsour on 30 March of this year, arresting him and putting him in deportation proceedings. ICE ultimately detained him in Clay county jail in Indiana.

Sarsour lost 30lb while detained, the order says. His lawyers told the court that he was “at constant risk of developing serious complications from diabetes given that the medical staff only checks his blood-sugar levels once a month”. Tightly controlling diabetes typically requires multiple glucose checks daily.

Hanlon’s order says that homeland security officials and Rubio probably trampled on Sarsour’s first amendment right to free speech and appeared to have arrested him in retaliation for his Palestinian rights advocacy.

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The order cited a New York Times story and the website for the Heritage Foundation, the conservative thinktank that dreamed up Project 2025,

The Heritage Foundation presented the White House with the idea to present prominent foreign-born Muslims and Palestinian rights leaders as terrorists in order to sue them, deport them or pressure employers to fire them, the order says, citing reporting from the Times and Heritage’s own website. Sarsour was probably among the targets of that campaign, the order says.

The federal government, through its lawyers, contended that Sarsour should be deported based on two convictions from more than three decades ago in Israel – one for throwing a molotov cocktail and the other for attempting to store weapons and ammunition.

Sarsour denies having committed those crimes.

But Hanlon viewed those crimes as a non-issue for justifying his incarceration, noting that the federal government knew about them since the 1990s and approved his legal permanent residency and his citizenship application anyway.

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Sarsour’s speech on Palestinian rights “is core political speech and squarely within the scope of the First Amendment”, the order says. “Mr Sarsour has submitted evidence allowing a reasonable inference that his protected speech was ‘at least a motivating factor’ in Respondents’ decision to detain him.”

A spokesperson for homeland security described Sarsour as a “terrorist”, citing the convictions from his youth in Israel.

Government lawyers had argued that Sarsour did not have the same first amendment rights as US citizens. If he were released, they said, he should have to pay a $25,000 bond, wear an ankle monitor, check in routinely with ICE and remain confined to his house.

Instead, Hanlon ordered his release on personal recognizance, meaning that Sarsour does not have to pay a cash bond to compel him to show up in court again. The order, however, requires him to remain in the state of Wisconsin.



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