News & Stories

Last week, The Seattle Times published an op-ed by Michael Saltsman of the D.C. Employment Policies Institute asserting that a recent EPI study had found Seattle’s paid sick days law was hurting local businesses. As we pointed out at the time, EPI’s ‘report’ was basically an opinion survey of targeted opponents to sick days. But […]

A harsh reality for many recent college grads: Loan repayment dates are looming as summer winds down. If current trends hold, one in eight students will default on their loans. The default rate has tripled over the last decade and the consequences are not pretty: tax refunds taken, wages garnished, and of course a nose-diving […]

This week, The Seattle Times ran an op-ed by Michael Saltsman of the Employment Policies Institute (EPI), an industry-funded ‘research’ organization, claiming Seattle’s Paid Sick Days law is negatively impacting local businesses and driving up costs. Here’s the funny thing about EPI’s report: it’s basically an opinion survey of a very small sample. EPI surveyed […]

Yesterday, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) – a national campaign committee fighting for progressive change – convened a discussion between professors, policy leaders and students to discuss Pay It Forward and ways to turn university classrooms into hubs of civic action. PCCC has done incredible work to introduce professors and their classrooms to public […]

It is no surprise we’re facing a retirement crisis in the making. American workers aren’t saving for retirement – most often, because they simply can’t. Some states (California, most recently) have taken concrete and proactive steps to dealing with this issue. Others – including our own – have studied ways to fix the problem. But little has […]

Part one of a three-part series on America’s testing culture and its impacts on education. American students collectively spend millions of hours taking tests that are supposed to evaluate  their performance and progress, as well as that of their teacher and school. But America’s obsession with standardized testing may be distracting policymakers from considering evidence-based […]

Marilyn Watkins, EOI policy director, has been appointed as a member to Seattle’s Gender Equity in Pay Task Force. The task force is in response to recent findings by the National Partnership for Women and Families (NPWF) that Seattle has the largest gender wage gap in the nation. After conducting an internal audit following NPWF’s […]

When Boeing announced in 2009 that it would invest $750 million in a new South Carolina production plant to build the 787 Dreamliner, the airplane giant said it needed to cut down on costs being driven up by unions. After years of battling with machinists unions, Boeing moved to non-unionized South Carolina where workers’ benefits […]

Five years ago the wheels came off the financial system in our country. The risk-taking and gambling with other people’s money caught up with the financial giants who ruled the economic roost. This collapse grew out of the 2001 recession. The policy of then-President Bush and the GOP-controlled Congress and Senate was to lower taxes, […]

Washington state is poised to continue the success of California and New Jersey’s paid family leave laws. Reports have shown in California  that 9 out of 10 employers report a “positive” or “no noticeable ’’  effect in profitability, worker turnover, and employee morale after the implementation of paid family leave. In New Jersey, employers are […]

August 5th, 2013 marks the 20-year anniversary of the Family Medical Leave Act – the nation’s first law guaranteeing most workers job-protected unpaid leave for certain medical or family emergencies. This week our blog will focus on the importance of family and medical leave programs and the need to pass the next generation of family and medical […]