News & Stories

Tomorrow’s Healthy Tacoma kickoff event (11 am at King’s Books) will feature panel discussion with three Tacoma-area residents. They will discuss the challenges to implementation, the need for paid sick days, business concerns, and the impact on public health. The panelists: Have kids? Bring them too! There will be a Children’s Corner set up with […]

A recent study (Seattle Times report) in the Journal of Pediatrics found the lives of nearly 900 infants – and billions of dollars in health care costs – could be saved if 90% of U.S. women breastfed their babies for the first 6 months of their life. Government guidelines recommend babies receive only breast milk […]

Don’t forget, the Coalition for a Healthy Tacoma will be hosting a community forum this Thursday, April 8th. It will take place at King’s Books, located at 218 St. Helens Avenue in Tacoma. Click for map If you are in the Tacoma area, please attend! A strong turnout will show the City Council and media […]

In February 2007, San Francisco implemented the nation’s first paid sick days law, allowing all workers within the city to earn a minimum amount of paid sick leave. Restaurants are among the employers least likely to provide sick leave benefits, absent such a requirement. Therefore, if minimum paid leave standards effect the number of jobs […]

The Forum on Workplace Flexibility, held by President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, highlighted the importance of workplace practices that allow working people to meet the demands of their jobs — without sacrificing their family responsibilities. “Flexible policies actually make employees more – not less – productive,” said Mrs. Obama. “Instead of spending time […]

From the Coalition for Healthy Tacoma Megan, a server at a Tacoma restaurant, called in sick with the flu one evening in 2007. Her supervisor told her the restaurant was busy that night, and she needed to come in anyway. “It was pretty much ‘you don’t call in sick unless you’re on your deathbed,’” said […]

EOI’s latest policy brief, Restoring Retirement Security: Supplemental Social Insurance for Washington, finds the “three-legged stool” of retirement security — Social Security, pensions, and savings — is broken. Although Social Security remains as a solid pedestal for retirement, pensions are shrinking or non-existent and workers are more apt to have debts than savings. As a […]

From the Coalition for a Healthy Tacoma Maria, 39, is a housekeeper at a Tacoma hotel. She and her husband both work full time, and their two sons, aged 13 and 18, are in school. Her position is unionized, so she receives three days of paid sick leave and three paid holidays per year. Maria […]

From the Everett Herald: Akbar and Teresa, a husband and wife team, run the coffee shop across the street. They make good coffee and sandwiches for the workday crowd. We go there a lot, so we have gotten to know each other. We’ve learned about their health insurance costs, about Teresa’s cancer, about their kids’ […]

The President and First Lady will be kicking off a national discussion today on how to help women and men meet the dual demands of work and family. Administration officials, work-family advocates, labor and business leaders, and researchers will discuss how to pioneer workplace arrangements that meet the needs of the 21st century workforce. Watch […]

The latest research shows that minimum paid sick days standards and a strong economy go hand-in-hand. The Drum Major Institute (DMI) for Public Policy has just released a report titled Paid Sick Leave Does Not Harm Employment that lays to rest  fears that paid sick days legislation may cost jobs. The report examines the effect […]

From Public News Service: OLYMPIA, Wash. – As lawmakers continue their efforts to close Washington State’s multi-billion dollar budget gap, environmentalists are urging them to close a tax loophole for the state’s largest polluter. Washington State could save $5 million per year by ending the tax break for TransAlta, the Canadian company that owns a […]

To close the gap between the House and Senate revenue proposals, lawmakers should bury their differences over the bottle: that is, they should vote to tax bottled beverages at a penny an ounce, then head home to their districts for some well-deserved rest. A 1 cent per oz. tax  (wholesale, not retail) on soft drinks […]

When a confidential report for Washington legislators put Wal-Mart atop the list of employers whose workers receive food stamps and/or state-subsidized medical coverage, company spokesperson Amy Hill said the report might not be accurate, because it used data from 2004. From the Seattle Times: “We implemented a lot of new plans last fall that we […]

The recently released Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) newsletter on paid sick leave (featured in a previous post) has caught the attention of some policy experts and researchers because it features previously unreleased data on the true costs of paid sick days to businesses. The BLS analysis finds the average cost for sick leave per […]

Washington’s estate tax has been on the books since 1901. But under current federal law, the  federal estate tax is repealed for the year 2010 — only to reappear in 2011. Rather than permitting this anomaly of a Bush era tax “reform” to continue, the federal estate tax should be reinstated for 2010 and subsequent […]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which monitors, tracks and analyzes statistical data about labor economics, recently released its March 2010 newsletter titled “Paid Sick Leave in the United States.” In the report, The BLS estimates that 61% of private sector workers and 89% of state and local government workers receive paid sick days. However, […]

Unpredictability is a part of a shift worker’s daily life. Learning about your next shift only days in advance? Rotating shifts and unexpected last minute overtime? Or being sent home early without pay when work is slow? It’s all part of a day’s work. Or not, as Vickie Underwood learned. Having worked at a printing […]

Milwaukee’s paid sick days law is receiving national attention as the justices on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court prepare to take the case. The ordinance, passed in November 2008 by a 69% majority, would allow workers to earn a minimum of one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. This means up to 5 […]

It’s a public policy triple play. Tax sweets (like candy, gum and soft drinks) and you: Raise enough revenue to ensure thousands of children can get (or keep) their health care. Discourage behavior with high social costs like obesity and dental cavities. Make the tax system more fair by ending tax exemptions for those items. […]

Four bills that advance early learning are ready to be signed into law! EOI, the Children’s Alliance and early learning supporters across the state are asking Governor Gregoire to sign, in their entirety, E2SHB 3141, 2SHB 2731, SSB 6759, and 2SHB 2867. Please join us in urging Governor Gregoire to sign these four bills and […]

As the state legislature struggles to reach agreement on a revised plan to avoid unconscionable cuts to the very public structures on which thousands of workers and families rely, and our economy needs to grow, they could do worse than to take a second look at some of the options killed by corporate lobbyists early […]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uAe-mZZyO4] h/t: Publicola

In a recently released report titled Women and Social Security: Benefit Types and Eligibility, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) took a look at the numbers to determine who is eligible for Social Security and what types of benefits they receive. Social Security benefits are not just available to retired workers. Typically, benefits are […]

A report released today by the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) estimates the impact of the Healthy Families Act, which would provide workers in businesses with 15+ employees a minimum paid sick leave requirement of seven days per year. The estimates: As a result of the Healthy Families Act, at least 30.3 million additional workers would […]

From the Everett Herald: [Ed.: Check out 10 Myths of Europe – busted on WaPoWa to learn more.] Can you imagine a world in which you receive health care when you need it, and don’t have to worry about losing your coverage when you change jobs? How about when you have a child, being able […]

FACT: While Europe’s technological prowess has been compared unfavorably with the U.S., more than anywhere else, Europe is the place of high speed trains, vast solar arrays, high tech windmills, hydrogen and electric cars and power from the sea. Europe is populated by high tech companies and projects such as Airbus, BMW, Mercedes, Nokia, Siemens, […]

FACT: Europe has achieved some impressive foreign policy accomplishments that force us to reevaluate of how we define “power” in the 21st century. America’s aggressive brand of unilateralism and military “hard power” has suffered unexpected setbacks in recent years. But Europe’s “smart power,” which is based on multilateral diplomacy and regional networks of investment, trade, […]

FACT: Muslim immigration in Europe currently represents a mere 3% of Europe’s total population of more than 500 million. More immigrants have arrived from non-Muslim countries than from Muslim; in France the largest immigrant group for the last two decades is from Portugal, not North Africa. The percentage of Muslims immigrants is far smaller than […]