News & Stories

Just two decades ago, fewer than one in ten households held student debt. Now, rapid increases in the sticker price for college has driven more students and their families to take out loans. For most college seniors, the idea of “working your way through college”  has all but vanished, replaced by the dread of high […]

[Cross-posted from Washington Work and Family Coalition] | By Janice D’Arcy : USA Today Where’s the best place in the world to be a mother? Norway, according to a report released by Save the Children. Iceland and Sweden came in respectively at second and third. “The Best and Worst Places to Be a Mom” report […]

By Janice D’Arcy | USA Today A radical, if little noticed, idea came out of the Center for American Progress last week. Staff there ran the numbers and found a feasible, relatively painless way to offer U.S. workers paid family leave. Paid family leave is one of those issues that at the moment has plenty […]

With health care reform currently underway, analysts and advocates are working to determine what effects the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will have on specific populations – including children. Thanks to good policy making (and good legislators), Washington is a national leader in providing health coverage for kids. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Washington […]

Seattle summers are the best. But with school having just started and fall weather and flu season around the corner, juggling work and family responsibilities will get a little more challenging. There is a bright spot, though: On Sept. 1, a new city ordinance took effect that ensures most workers in Seattle will be able […]

The New Mexico Supreme Court rebuffs an attempt by business lobbyists to block a minimum wage initiative signed by 20,000 Albuquerque residents Voters in Albuquerque, New Mexico will get to decide this November whether to raise the city’s minimum wage, after the New Mexico Supreme Court ordered the City of Albuquerque last night to allow […]

[Cross-posted from Washington Work and Family Coalition] By Janice D’Arcy || USA Today Recently a group of about two dozen care-giving advocates, many of them children’s advocates too, gathered in a conference overlooking K Street to brainstorm about how to make care policies more prominent in the presidential campaign. There was a universal agreement from […]

From the Washington News Service When Washington’s hourly minimum wage increases in January, it will mean $6 more per week for full-time workers at that pay rate. The 15-cent increase raises their annual income to a bit more than $19,000. That’s enough for a single person to live on in most counties. Add just one […]

The title of recent article in Bloomberg Businessweek says it all: Top 1% Got 93% of Income Growth as Rich-Poor Gap Widened. Much of this imbalance in income growth can be explained by looking at where the growth has happened. Big gains in the stock market have buoyed most indexes close to pre-recession levels, but […]

Imagine boarding a crowded escalator in a department store. Standing at the bottom, you look at the long line of people ahead of you also going up, and think, “Well, we’re all getting there eventually”. But what if you had a friend shopping with you who happens to be a wizard? With a deft flick […]

The Washington Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) just announced a 15-cent bump to Washington’s 2013 minimum wage – to $9.19 per hour, or just over $19,000 for a full-time worker. The reason for the increase? A 1998 voter-approved initiative that pegs increases in Washington’s minimum wage to inflation. The measure effectively took minimum wage […]

Hundreds of special exemptions and loopholes, adding up to billions in lost revenue, riddle Washington’s tax code. It’s a tempting target for reform, but how to begin – especially when every tax break has industry lobbyists willing to fight for it tooth and nail? Rep. Larry Seaquist (D-Gig Harbor), a former battleship commander and Pentagon […]

For nearly 300,000 people working at or near Washington’s minimum wage, the 15-cent cost-of-living adjustment (to $9.19 per hour) scheduled for January 1st, 2013 will help their paychecks keep up with the cost of living – but it’s far short of what the vast majority need to make ends meet. In 2013, a full-time minimum […]

From the “no-brainer” news desk comes a new study that adds some empirical data to plain old common sense: workers are less likely to be injured on the job when they have paid sick days. The study, performed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH is part of the CDC), found paid […]

Let’s hear three jeers for Washington, which yet again has the ignoble distinction of the most regressive tax structure in the nation – a “soak the poor” system where those with the least pay the highest tax rates. An updated report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) that examines how state tax […]

So Mitt Romney thinks that 47 percent of us are moochers. Let’s keep in mind that Mr. Romney is only referring to the federal income tax. He disregards what comes out of each and every one of our paychecks for Social Security and Medicare. And that’s a hefty amount — 7.65 percent before the great […]

Consumer Reports has just released a short and easy-to-read guide to how Obamacare – also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – will affect you and your family: Consumer Reports – Health Reform: Seven Things You Need to Know. While it won’t teach you how to do a DIY knee replacement, the guide does […]

In the “makers vs. takers” debate, the line between truth and opinion is just a dot to some. That might win a debate, but it’s not a good way to run a democracy. So here’s a handy summary of what’s fake and what’s fact, to help square those pesky (mis)perceptions with reality: Fake: Nearly half […]

Recently the Employment Security Department released its latest unemployment numbers for Washington: 8.6% unemployment in August – up from 8.5% in July and 8.3% in June. We would expect to see a concurrent fall in jobs numbers. Fewer jobs mean higher unemployment, right? While generally true, the numbers don’t always match up month-to-month. A couple […]

It’s a big day for policy wonks – today the U.S. Census Bureau released 2011 data from the American Community Survey, the largest yearly data collection of demographic, housing, social, and economic information in the United States. The American Community Survey (ACS) began gathering information in 2005, and covers about 3 million households per year. […]

Once upon a time, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) used backroom deal-making to connect state policymakers with corporate lobbyists who held regressive model legislation in one hand and campaign donations in the other. But ever since ALEC’s “business model” was exposed for the world to see, that’s started to change. Now there’s a progressive […]

A new report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) – Congress’s nonpartisan research arm – touched a nerve among free-market ideologues, who reacted to the wonky policy brief by accusing CRS of partisanship and calling their analysis into question. But politicians from both parties, as well as these same ideologues, often cite CRS data and […]

UPDATE: The Tacoma and Shoreline forums have been postponed until after the election due to scheduling conflicts. The Vancouver forum will still be on November 15th. “Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.” – Joe Biden That quote from the Vice President was a political […]

Eleven years ago yesterday we woke up to a beautiful blue sky morning, and our world came crashing down on our heads. And 11 years ago today, we looked in one direction to help us, protect us, and rebuild our world. That direction was to our government. The firefighters who lost their lives trying to […]