News & Stories

By Stan Sorscher, from the Huffington Post The U.S. and 10 other countries are negotiating ournext big trade agreement, called TPP. It’s time to re-examine what works and what doesn’t work. Imagine a thought experiment, where we put environmentalists in each country in charge of negotiating the next trade agreement. Preposterous! I know. Stick with me. This […]

A recent study finds that nine out of ten restaurant workers do not get paid sick days. One restaurant owner argues why that’s bad for business. Click below for the video (pardon the advertisement).

Thanks to fear-mongering by opponents and a backhanded attempt to connect Social Security to the deficit, this question is on the minds of millions of Americans – especially young adults. But fear not! Attend this event to have all of your questions answered about the future of Social Security, regardless of your age. On Wednesday […]

Cross-posted from the Washington Work and Family Coalition: In the recent dust-up over a local coffee shop’s signs about (and surcharge for) paid sick days, you might have missed this, from the owners of Grand Central Bakery: …paid sick leave amounts to a relatively small thing for an employer translating to a relatively huge thing […]

Aubrey Davis – longtime board member and friend of the Economic Opportunity Institute – died Sunday. Read more about this civic giant, who helped found Group Health, secured funding for the downtown bus tunnel, pushed for the lush lid over I-90 on Mercer Island, and invented a no-slip compound still used on house decks around […]

Nationally, women working full-time earn about 81% of men. Here in Washington, that number drops to 75%. One factor is the presence of information, science and technology jobs in Washington. Important industries for our state economy, they are high-paying sectors dominated by men. In fact, these industries are among the top offenders for large pay […]

According to an IWPR analysis of the January employment report, job growth was stronger for women (102,000 jobs) than men (55,000 jobs), for a total of 157,000 jobs added to nonfarm payrolls during the month of January. In January, there was strong growth in women’s employment in education and health services (32,000 jobs added), professional […]

By Don Orange, from The Columbian I’m a small-business owner. I want my business to succeed — and I want my community to grow and prosper. That’s why I strongly support the Family and Medical Leave Insurance proposal being considered by the Legislature. And that’s why I disagree with the Jan. 29 Columbian editorial that […]

Modest increases in the minimum wage – such as the one proposed by President Obama in his State of the Union address – have little impact on employment, finds a new paper from the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The paper, “Why Does the Minimum Wage Have No Discernible Effect on Employment?” reviews evidence on eleven […]

Sometimes a picture speaks a thousand words. And for those interested in understanding what impact the “Chained CPI” will have on their Social Security benefits, look no further than this graph. The Chained CPI would change the way inflation is calculated, and shrink annual cost-of-living adjustments for seniors. That means if someone retired at 65 […]

The Seattle Times reports majority coalition leader Sen. Rodney Tom (D-Medina) and five other state senators* have introduced legislation designed to gut Seattle’s paid sick and safe days law: Senate Bill 5726, a.k.a. “the Burger King exemption”, prohibits any local paid sick/safe leave law from applying to people who work for employers headquartered outside of […]

Tune in to KUOW’s The Conversation with Ross Reynolds today between 12:00 and 12:40 p.m. to hear Marilyn Watkins, EOI’s Policy Director, discuss the role government plays in creating and sustaining our economy through public investment in education, transportation, and more.

Valentine’s Day is tomorrow! Don’t forget your spouse, partner, boyfriend, girlfriend, romantic favorite. And let’s not forget about our kids. That’s the choice that the Legislature will be making in the next few weeks — whether to forget about our youngest kids, or to do right by them. Here’s a bit of history. In 2007, […]

Thanks to fear-mongering by opponents and a backhanded attempt to connect Social Security to the deficit, this question is on the minds of millions of Americans – especially young adults. But fear not! Attend this event to have all of your questions answered about the future of Social Security, regardless of your age. On February 20th, renowned […]

Eight weeks before Danelle Buchman’s baby was due, an artery ruptured in her uterus, which nearly killed her and her child. Delivered by emergency C-section in 2010, her newborn daughter, Avery, spent one month in intensive care. Buchman survived only after an immediate hysterectomy. When she tried to return to a PR job she loved […]

Washington’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FMLI) law, which passed in 2007, would provide paid leave to new parents caring for a newborn or newly adopted child. Unfortunately, the bill passed without a funding source, and fell victim to the recession that immediately followed. Until this year, FMLI had been tabled by legislators grappling with ongoing […]

In 2011, the Washington State Legislature approved a bill that paved the way for public colleges and universities to start charging differential tuition: college degrees that cost more to confer, like engineering and business, would be subject to higher tuition than lower-cost degrees like history or English. The most damning criticism of differential tuition is that by raising the price, […]

Jim Houser made sure to wear his brown mechanic’s shirt, the one with the “Jim” nametag and multiple certification patches, to last week’s meeting at City Hall. The Portland City Council is considering a proposal to require businesses to provide sick leave for employees. Houser owns Hawthorne Auto Clinic and wanted the council to hear […]

Recent and near-retirees, the first major cohort of the 401(k) era, do not have nearly enough in retirement savings to even come close to maintaining their current lifestyles. We need an across the board increase in Social Security retirement benefits of 20% or more. We need it to happen right now, even if that means […]

The Washington State House Labor Committee heard two bills today that directly affect the economic security of working families. One of the bills, House Bill 1457, would implement and expand Washington’s currently inactive Family and Medical Leave Insurance program. Prime sponsor Rep. Tami Green introduced the legislation: “As a mom, and a nurse, and a legislator, I […]

What’s happening now: In 2007, Washington’s legislature approved a Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program to provide parents of newborn or newly adopted children up to 5 weeks of partially paid leave. FMLI as originally adopted wasn’t funded due to the 2008 recession. Implementation has been delayed to 2015. Now Washington policy makers have the […]

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993, the first bill President Clinton signed into law, ensuring unpaid time off for workers at businesses with more than 50 employees. Since its implementation, more than 50 million workers have taken FMLA leave to care for newborns, seriously ill family members, […]

Cross-posted from Washington Work and Family Coalition: Two decades since the Family Medical Leave Act became the law of the land, scientific opinion polling released Tuesday shows small business owners strongly support the law, which allows eligible employees of covered employers a limited amount of unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons. The […]

Live – House Labor and Workforce Development Committee: House Bill 1457 (Family and medical leave insurance) and House Bill 1313 (paid sick days):

American Winter is a powerful and timely documentary that follows the stories of eight middle-class families struggling to survive in the aftermath of the Great Recession. It reveals the impact of rising economic inequality, cuts to social services, and the fracturing of the American Dream. [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJJR3lG72AA] World premiere on 2/17 and 2/17 at the Portland […]