Although a gender gap still exists, both reports indicate that women have fared better than men in the past 6 1/2 years in terms of wage growth.

Nationally, men's wages have risen only 1.1 percent since the recovery period began in 2001, while women have seen a 5 percent growth, the EPI report states. In Utah, the real median wage for men has fallen from a high of $17.29 in 1981 to $15.04 in 2006. The real median wage for women, on the other hand, has risen from $10.30 in 1979 to $11.25 in 2006.

Utah's child poverty rate remains below the national average, although nearly two in every five children fall below 200 percent of the federal poverty level of about $41,000 a year for a family of four.

"We have fewer desperately poor, but what we do have is a lot of these kids living in families that are on the edge who are one work accident or one credit card payment away" from abject poverty, Rowland said.

For U.S. workers, the data may be the best news they can expect to see for a while, researchers said Thursday. With the mortgage market in an uproar from the subprime meltdown, and, as a result, the ensuing credit crunch and predicted housing bust, economists predict continued volatility in the broader economy.

"These wage results that we've seen through the first part of 2007 could be as could as it gets for this recovery," Bernstein said.

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E-mail: awelling@desnews.com