Research scientist David Swenson's recent media contacts:
Erica Fry, Fortune, about the economic events affecting Iowa in 2020 (trade war, pandemic, and derecho, primarily).
Steve Ravel, Corridor Business Journal (Coralville), about the reliability of business forecasts in light of the pandemic and the pace of economic recovery realized to date.
Jeff Montgomery, Telegraph Herald, about conveying cautious optimism local economic conditions.
Lakyn McGee, WOI-TV, on the proposal to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and how that would affect households and businesses.
“If you count for inflation the Iowa minimum wage, today, would have to be about $9.33 an hour to give you the same purchasing power an Iowan had working the minimum wage back in 2007," explained Dave Swenson, an economics professor at Iowa State University.
Swenson said a minimum wage worker would have to work an extra nine hours a week to make the same as a minimum wage worker in 2007.
This story also covered by
Des Moines Register, Feb. 2