Sylvia Allegretto is a labor economist and co-chair of the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics, which is housed at UC Berkeley's Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. She received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Prior to working at CWED she was at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., where she coauthored several editions of The State of Working America. Allegretto's research interests at EPI include minimum wages and sub-minimum wages received by tipped workers, along with long-term unemployment, teacher pay, public employee compensation, low-wage labor markets, and inequality. She closely tracks the economy, with particular interest in typical workers and how they are faring. She is frequently called upon by media outlets to provide commentary and contextualize economic data and trends.