Alaska: How Alaska wages have shifted in the last 25 years - According to the Alaska Department of Labor, over the last four decades, the richest 1 percent of Americans had 181 percent income growth, meaning their income nearly tripled. Everyone else - the 99 percent - saw income increase a mere 2.6 percent. Men’s wages actually declined over that period and women’s median wages continued growing until around 2000, and have stagnated over the last 15 years.

Wages have stagnated and inequality has grown even as a growing percentage of Americans earn a four-year college degree. For the first time in American history, rising worker productivity has not translated into higher wages. Such failures in national economic policy are not inevitable — they are a result of more regressive taxation, union-busting, education defunding, and outsourcing.

The October issue of Alaska Economic Trends explains how earning patterns have shifted in the last 25 years. According to a report by Alaska Department of Labor Research Analyst Mali Abrahamson, the total amount earned has grown steadily over the past 25 years, but there have been shifts in the distribution of those earnings.

The percentage of year-round Alakska workers making relatively low wages — between $20,000 and $40,000 — increased from 28 percent in 1989 to 34 percent in 2014. However, the percentage of Alaskans making moderately high wages — between $70,000 and $150,000 — fell from 34 percent to 26 percent.

For the small number of workers making more than $200,000 a year, the percentage more than doubled between 1989 and 2014, from 0.8 percent to 1.7 per- cent. That growth came mostly from upper manage- ment occupations in the oil and gas industry.

Related to the shift in wages, Alaska’s median wages is also lower now than it was 25 years ago, though it has been steadily rising since 1999. All wages in this article are adjusted for inflation and are in 2014 dollars.

Abrahamson's report covers only year-round workers, or those who worked in Alaska in all four quarters of the year. Wages and worker counts include full-time and part-time employees and exclude federal civilian and military workers as well as the self-employed.

It also only covers payroll workers, or those who earn a wage or salary. Business owners, including partners in a business who share profits but don’t receive a wage or salary, are excluded.

The median wage went down

In 1989, Alaska’s median wage was $48,654, the highest over the 25-year period. The state’s economy changed as the service sector expanded in the early ‘90s, bringing in more lower-paying jobs in office administration, food service, and retail.

State and local government workers’ wages also dropped significantly as Alaska emerged from the high-demand labor market of the 1970s and 1980s brought on by pipeline construction and the boom fueled by new oil revenue.

By 1999, the median wage hit its lowest point at $40,350. It has gradually increased since then, to $44,750 by 2014.

More workers with lower wages

Two-thirds of the numerical growth in year-round workers since 1989 has been among those making less than $50,000 a year. There was little to no increase in the number of workers in the $90,000 to $200,000 range. - More...
Monday PM - October 12, 2015

Southeast Alaska: Forest Service plans to withdraw Tongass old-growth timber sale - In a federal court filing last Friday the U.S. Forest Service announced it will withdraw its decision on the Mitkof Island Project, a large 35 million board foot timber sale. The project is in the center of the Tongass National Forest, near the communities of Petersburg and Kupreanof.

Petersburg District Ranger Jason Anderson signed the Forest Service's decision in March. In May five environmental organizations filed the lawsuit, GSACC v. Anderson. They are the Greater Southeast Alaska Conservation Community, Cascadia Wildlands, Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace, and the Alaska Wildlife Alliance. The organizations are represented by Chris Winter and Oliver Stiefel of Crag Law Center (Portland) and Gabriel Scott.

"Faced with the realities brought forth in our lawsuit, the Forest Service is withdrawing its authorization of the Mitkof project rather than defend it in court. This is a victory for old growth, wildlife, and subsistence hunters, although we don't yet know whether the agency will attempt resurrecting the project with future planning," said Cordova-based Gabriel Scott of Cascadia Wildlands.

At issue in the lawsuit is the harm caused by logging old-growth and to the species dependent on old growth forests including Sitka black-tailed deer-an essential resource for subsistence hunters-the Alexander Archipelago wolf, and the Queen Charlotte goshawk. Petersburg resident Becky Knight of GSACC said: "Mitkof Island has been hard hit by 60 years of industrial logging. Subsistence hunters from the community rely on deer as a primary source of protein, but for years have been faced with critically low deer populations and severe harvest restrictions. This area of the Tongass needs a long period of recovery, but this sale targeted some of the few remaining stands of important winter deer habitat."

Randi Spivak with the Center for Biological Diversity said, "During the planning process for this sale, the Forest Service tried to downplay and hide from the public the full scope of the damage this logging would cause." Spivak added: "The agency initially told the public this was a 'small sale' involving only a local logging opportunities, but the project ballooned to a major timber sale designed for a large regional or out-of-state timber operator." - More...
Monday PM - October 12, 2015