News & Stories

As we pause to commemorate Equal Pay Day – the day well into the year when the earnings of women working full time catch up with men’s earnings from the previous year – many people are asking why women earn so much less than men. The answer? Because women’s employers pay them so much less […]

Spring is in the air. That means cherry blossom season in Washington. It also means fly-in time, when the nation’s biggest trade associations hold their annual lobby days. Case in point: the National Restaurant Association (NRA) is hitting town at the end of April.Topping the Restaurant Association’s agenda? Stick a fork in the proposed minimum […]

On Wednesday, Seattle’s mayor and City Council committed to bringing Seattle closer to gender equity. Mayor Ed Murray and Councilmember Jean Godden announced practical first steps, based on recommendations of the Gender Equity in Pay Task Force. In a joint resolution, the mayor and council pledged to address disparity both in city government and across […]

There is a jewel in the crown of Chief Justice Roberts’ binding opinion that opens the flood gates for the wealthy to further fund political campaigns. It is jewel that people who believe in democracy (as opposed to plutocracy) should seize forthrightly: the right to vote. Chief Justice Roberts began his decision in the landmark […]

It’s no secret that funding trends in higher education in our state and across the nation are making it harder for low- and middle-income students to go to college, and nearly impossible for them to do so without going into debt. Twenty years ago, only 47% of students graduated with loans, and their average debt […]

In the 2014 legislative session, lawmakers looked at how to help workers save and plan for retirement when they don’t have savings plans provided at work. Senator Mark Mullet (Issaquah) and Representative Larry Springer (Kirkland) proposed a new program called START (Save Toward a Retirement Today) to make it much easier for small business owners […]

OLYMPIA | In a shocking twist Tuesday morning, a bipartisan group of legislators announced Washington state would squash its outdated and regressive tax code in favor of a more streamlined and equitable “21st century” solution. The groundbreaking move means that for the first time in recent memory, the state will actually be able to deploy […]

Last Monday, several of us headed out after work to celebrate with our intern who had just passed her PH.D. qualifying exams. But when we reached the bar we’d chosen, we found it was closed on Mondays. Did we shrug our shoulders and just go home? Of course not. We headed to another bar nearby […]

Editor’s Note: Interested in an internship at EOI? Read all about them right here. Earlier this year, I sat down with Bill Dow  to talk about his internship at EOI. Here’s what he had to say: Why did you decide to come work for EOI this summer? I actually started working at EOI in June 2012, […]

The Koch brothers are oil tycoons from Wichita. They inherited their oil company and initial wealth from their dad. They are multibillionaires intent on financing multimillion-dollar campaigns to elect politicians who want “less government.” Sometimes our mutual reliance on government becomes most clear in tragedy. The whole nation is waiting in shocked anguish with the […]

There’s a lot being talked about when it comes to income inequality, from the national work of Robert Reich’s Inequality for All to local efforts to pass a $15 minimum wage. Here in Washington, elected leaders, business owners, workers and neighbors are working together to craft policies that strengthen the economic security of working families […]

In his most expansive statement yet in support of paid leave policies, President Barack Obama declared that women deserve “workplace policies that protect her right to have a baby without losing her job, [and] to take a day off to care for a sick child or a parent without running into hardship.” The President spoke […]

Maybe you’ve had that early morning moment of anxiety when you wake up with a fever and a cough that won’t stop and you think ‘Should I go to work today?’  If you’re lucky, your employer offers a few paid days off in case of illness and you can roll over to get some much […]

Earlier this year, I sat down with Danielle Wallace to talk about her internship here at EOI. Here’s what she had to say: Why did you decide to come work for EOI this summer? I am passionate about social and economic policy, and thought EOI would be a great place to develop my analysis skills […]

People who toil away at jobs we all depend on shouldn’t live in poverty. But would a $15 minimum wage work in Seattle? Here’s a look past the rhetoric at what the research shows. Washington’s minimum wage of $9.32 isn’t enough to cover the basics. Affording a one-bedroom apartment in King County required working full-time […]

A recent Gallup poll found the national rate of uninsurance has fallen since the Affordable Care Act has been fully implemented. At the end of 2013, more than 17% of Americans were uninsured; by March of 2014, the rate had dropped to 15.9%. A majority of the newly insured are African Americans and those from […]

Do you want to learn more about working in public policy? Are you looking for a summer internship opportunity to build-out your professional experience in advocacy? EOI is now accepting applications for our paid summer internships. Interns will work directly with EOI staff on policy and communications projects. Our policy interns will work in one […]

There is a new study out that shows that low income students who get free tuition are more likely to go to college. That piece of common sense stood up to the investigation of six academic researchers. They could have just asked their neighbors. The program these researchers were looking at is called College Bound. […]

Nearly two-thirds of Americans support raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, but a new poll from the Small Business Majority found that nearly 6 in 10 small businesses support the wage hike as well. A new national poll of small business owners finds 57% support President Obama’s proposal to raise the minimum wage […]

The Atlantic recently reported on the U.S.’s ‘Big Baby Problem’. That is, how the U.S.’s record low birth rates will drive down consumption and key economic activity for food, housing and transportation purchases. Just look at this new data from a Gallup survey released today on the average daily spending of families. Even after you […]

What’s being done here at home to support working families and broaden the middle class? Join EOI on March 26th at 6:30 p.m. in Seattle to hear about local solutions to economic inequality from the leaders championing them. We’ll be joined by Washington State Representative Jessyn Farrell to discuss her work towards raising Washington’s minimum […]

Research from The Equality of Opportunity Project found that Seattleites born in the bottom fifth of the income ladder have a 10.9% chance of reaching the top fifth of the ladder. That puts Seattle at number four in rankings for upward mobility among the 50 largest metropolitan areas. Further, the Puget Sound Business Journal reports […]

Advocates from business, domestic violence prevention, senior citizen services, organized labor and workers from the retail, restaurant and grocery industry came together last week to urge the Washington State Senate to pass paid sick and safe leave. Panelists Monica Bryant, grocery worker Traci Underwood, Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence Boris Popovic, Main Street Alliance […]

Nearly half of all workers don’t have access to have a retirement savings plan at work – and that figure jumps to 80% of workers at businesses with fewer than 25 employees. This common sense proposal from Representative Springer, called START (Save Toward A Retirement Today) will offer a simple “plug and play” retirement savings […]

By Washington State Representative Roger Freeman Last year, I was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer.  Here’s the thing you think about when you have stage four cancer — there is no stage five. I was concerned. Not only for myself, but for my family. Fighting cancer means treatment and surgery.  Lots of doctor’s appointments. […]

If you like the notion of your tax dollars going toward record high profits for dozens of U.S. corporations, you can stop reading here. Still with me? Thanks. I’d like to introduce you to one of the most succinct, easy-to-understand and real-world explanations of how your tax dollars end up in corporate coffers, courtesy of […]

How do you say goodbye to a friend, a father, a mother, a sibling, a son or daughter, a grandparent? This week I am facing the challenge of saying goodbye to a dear friend. It is hard to face the death of a loved one. And yet, it is something all of us must do, […]

As divided as Americans seem to be about the role of government, we’re pretty united around the notion that quality public education should be accessible to all. Businesses and our economy can’t operate without an educated workforce – and educated customers. Democracy itself depends on citizens who can reason and understand the issues they vote […]