Wisconsin State Journal from Madison, Wisconsin • A8

A8 Sunday, January 6, 2019 Wisconsin state Journal 00 1 NATION WORLD FROM PAGE ONE and gender diversity. All department secre- taries, along with many other governor appointees, must be confirmed by the state Senate. At least one of picks, Craig Thomp- son, his choice to lead the Department of Transpor- tation, could face a rocky path to confirmation. GOP legislative leaders have criticized slate for being primarily from the two biggest metro areas, Milwaukee and Madison. Of 13 department secretaries, nine are from Dane or Mil- waukee counties.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said in a statement that and Milwaukee may have elected the new governor, but Evers has to be governor of all of Wis- his cabinet pri- marily selected from the Madison and Milwaukee areas, concerning that he seems to be already ig- noring the rest of the Vos said. Mellissa Baldauff, an Evers deputy chief of staff, said his picks to lead agen- cies and his office are di- verse group. It look like leadership of the past, Baldauff said the picks send another message about approach. is serious about solving the problems that our state is facing, and do- ing it in a way that is col- laborative and focused on solutions, not partisan- Baldauff said. Fewer lawmakers appointed Bill McCoshen, a prom- inent Republican lobbyist and former Commerce sec- retary under Gov.

Tommy Thompson, said picks generally lack the deep experience of Gov. Scott choices for his first Cabinet. But Mc- Coshen said picks signal a middle-of-the- road approach that im- prove their odds of get- ting through the Republi- can-controlled Senate. think the picture is fairly he said. a good message that (Evers) wants to get things Sachin Chheda, a Demo- cratic strategist from Mil- waukee, said Cab- inet picks make it clear that he values over partisan or ideological pedigrees.

selecting people to run the Ch- heda said. a marked contrast to what seen the last eight Two of picks are state lawmakers: for- mer Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, his choice for Reve- nue secretary; and Sen. Ca- leb Frostman, D-Sturgeon Bay, the pick for Workforce Development secretary. Six of picks for his first Cabinet sought or held partisan office: former Assembly speakers Mike Huebsch and Ben Brancel; former legislators Cathy Stepp and Mark Gottlieb; former Republican Dane County Sheriff Gary Ham- blin; and Dave Ross, who sought the GOP lieutenant governor nomination in 2010. Cabinet appoin- tees, meanwhile, include many picks who have op- erated more behind the scenes.

His pick to run the Department of Adminis- tration a post that over- sees hiring and personnel matters throughout state government, and typically works very closely with the governor is Joel Brennan, CEO of Dis- covery World science and technology museum. Bren- political activities in- clude managing one of the gubernatorial campaigns and a mayoral campaign for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a Democrat. Evers pick for Agricul- ture, Trade and Consumer Protection, Brad Pfaff, of Onalaska, was a staffer for U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, D-La Crosse, and worked in former President Barack administration at the U.S.

Department of Agriculture. by the Other Evers picks to lead high-profile departments include Preston Cole, a Milwaukee city official tapped for the Depart- ment of Natural Resources whose selection drew praise from Walker and Stepp. Cole is a member of the Natural Re- sources Board and has a forestry background. choice for the De- partment of Corrections is Kevin Carr, a U.S. marshal and onetime top aide to former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke.

Andrea Palm is pick for Health Services secretary a pick that will help lead ef- forts to expand Medicaid health coverage to 80,000 Wisconsinites under the federal Obamacare law. Palm most recently served under the Obama adminis- tration as senior counselor to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as well as senior health policy adviser for former U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, said in a statement that Evers built a team from across the state that brings diverse experience and refreshing to move away from some of the more partisan and politi- cal appointees seen in the past toward a cabi- net focused on being prob- lem-solvers that can work Shilling said. Liberal activists looking for staunchly left-wing pedigrees in Cabinet find many. But Grace Wagner, a spokeswoman for the group Our Wis- consin Revolution, which formed out of Sen. Bernie 2016 presidential campaign in the state, said her group is nonetheless pleased by what it has seen so far. She said they point to for coop- eration and a bipartisan era for the state of certainly encour- aged by the diversity and the experience level of the people he has Wagner said.

Six of Cabinet picks so far are women and three are people of color four if you add his choice to succeed him as state superintendent, Carolyn Stanford Taylor. That com- pares to first-term Cabinet picks, of whom three were women and two were people of color. All four of top aides are women, led by his chief of staff, Maggie Gau. The three deputies are Baldauff, a former Demo- cratic Party of Wisconsin spokeswoman and staffer for Milwaukee County Ex- ecutive Chris Abele; Kara Pennoyer, former chief of staff to Shilling; and Bar- bara Worcester, who was a staffer to former Sen- ate Majority Leader Russ Decker. DOT pick at issue pick of Thomp- son for the Department of Transportation has been the most contentious.

It drew critical statements from Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, and Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Saukville, noting role as a lobbyist in previ- ous transportation budget debates. Thompson leads the Wisconsin ra a i Development Association, which advocates boosting revenues for road, bridge and transit projects of which Stroebel has been a leading opponent. Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, in a statement for this story, said picks signal a departure from the princi- ples that underpinned the wave of conserva- tive changes enacted under Walker. But Fitzgerald also praised his pick for Admin- istration secretary.

encouraged by the selection of individuals like Joel Brennan and look forward to working with him in a closer capacity moving Fitzger- ald said. Like past governors, Evers has relied heavily on past associates to stock his gubernatorial inner circle. He has named four from the Department of Public Instruction to top state posts: Kathy Koltin Blu- menfeld as Financial In- stitutions secretary; Brian Pahnke as state budget di- rector; Stanford Taylor as state superintendent; and Dawn Crim as Safety and Professional Services sec- retary. For John Schulze, a lob- byist at Associated Builders and Contractors and former Department of Transpor- tation chief legal counsel under Walker, Cab- inet picks are no surprise. Schulze said typical for Cabinet members to reflect who appointed them.

are like Schulze said. take on the flavor of their Cabinet From A1 Inauguration Day Inaugural ceremonies for Tony Evers are Monday, when he officially becomes 46th governor. His inaugural team is holding galas in Madison, Milwaukee and ap- pleton this weekend. a look at the Inauguration day schedule: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Inaugu- ration Ceremony, State Capitol 1 p.m.

to 3 p.m., Public re- ceiving line, State Capitol 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., Inaugural Gala, Monona Terrace Crim Frostman Thompson Kolar Cole CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and ANNE Associated Press WASHINGTON retailers, struggling to fill jobs, have been raising pay to try to keep and attract enough employees. Now, some stores want something in return: A more efficient worker. To that end, retailers, fast food restaurants and other low- er-wage employers are boosting investment in technology and redesigning stores. Walmart is automating its truck unloading to require fewer workers on loading docks.

is using more hand- held devices to speed check-outs and restock shelves. is increasingly replacing cashiers with self-service kiosks to free up workers for table service. Retail workers, though com- paratively low-paid, have enjoyed some of the best wage gains in the past year. Their hourly pay rose 4.3 percent in November from a year earlier much faster than such higher-wage industries as manufacturing, where pay rose 1.8 percent. Walmart raised its starting pay to $11 an hour in 2018.

minimum is $12, with plans to make it $15 by 2020. starting wage leapt to $15 in No- vember. And more than 20 states have raised minimum wages above the federal $7.25 an hour. Even as absorbed higher labor costs, most retailers re- main reluctant to pass them on to customers in the form of price increases. American consumers have grown increasingly insis- tent on bargain prices in part a hangover from the Great Reces- sion, in part a function of online price-comparison tools.

So unless companies are willing to eat all or part of their higher labor costs, they need to increase their efficiency. A com- wage increase of 10 percent can be offset if its employees pro- duce 10 percent more. need meaningful im- in productivity, said Greg Foran, CEO of US division. generally going up. going to come down as competition Walmart employees can now use mobile devices to check whether an item is in stock and avoid trek- king to distant storerooms.

The phones also send alerts when an item needs a price change and di- rects workers to those items. And in a cluster of stores, Walmart has deployed robots that monitor stockpiles and can send photos of empty shelves to phones. The informa- tion is sent to a conveyer system that scans boxes being unloaded from trucks. Workers then orga- nize the boxes for delivery to the sales floor. The system has slashed the number of people needed to unload trucks.

Jaana Remes, an economist at McKinsey Global Institute, noted that after the Great Recession, stagnant pay reduced the incen- tive for employers to invest in labor-saving technology. Now, starting to reverse. Remes pointed out that la- bor-saving technology is more common in countries where pay is higher. have you seen grocery baggers in Remes said. still have them in the U.S.” But perhaps not for long.

For this holiday shopping sea- son, some Target employees began using mobile devices to check out shoppers. Under pressure from online retailers, Target is also in- vesting in technology to transform its stores into shipping hubs to cut costs and speed deliveries. And is stepping up its use of mobile technology to help em- ployees restock shelves more effi- ciently and equipping some with iPad devices for faster checkouts. unclear whether efforts will be enough to boost the overall productivity of workforce, which has been mired in anemic growth since the Great Recession. Productivity output per hour worked is critical to rising living standards.

An econ- omy can expand only as fast as its working age population and the growth in worker productivity. Though U.S. productivity has picked up a bit this year, it grew just 1.3 percent in the July-Sep- tember quarter from a year earlier. only about half the pace of the 1990s and early 2000s. Mooyah, a hamburger chain with 80 restaurants mostly in the South, is responding to higher wages by reconfiguring its new restaurants to enable cooks to function like basketball play- ers pivoting on one foot when necessary but mostly remaining in place.

During peak hours, this system is intended to enable five employees to do work that now requires up to nine. (Mooyah is owned by the private equity firm Balmoral Funds.) need to do everything without said Michael Mabry, chief operating officer. How all this affects most work- ers quite clear. Transitions to new technologies and business processes, Remes noted, can be difficult and dis- ruptive for employees. With wages increased, retailers expect some payback Wanted: A more efficient worker JULIO CORTEZ, ASSOCIATED PRESS Employees demonstrate how air pillow machines work nov.

16 at a packaging station in the backroom of a Target store in Edison, n.J. For many retailers that have lifted pay to attract and keep workers, another challenge has arisen: Making those workers productive enough to justify their income. Mooyah, a hamburger chain with 80 restaurants mostly in the South, is enabling its cooks to function like basketball players pivoting on one foot when necessary but mostly remaining in place. Stop dropping by to work. Start dropping by to visit.

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