News & Stories

While campaigning in New Mexico, Sen. Barack Obama outlined his plans to support paid family leave and paid sick days policies in every state: Today, 78 percent of workers covered by FMLA don’t take leave because it isn’t paid. That’s just not fair. You shouldn’t be punished for getting sick or dealing with a family […]

A survey released Monday by the AARP of 400 companies of all sizes in Washington State found that while health insurance is costing more for all companies, the price hikes for small businesses are almost three times those of larger companies. Fixing our health care mess would give businesses of every kind a boost and […]

The promise of America is one of opportunity – and part of fulfilling that promise is giving our kids a fair start in life. It’s heartening to see some of our country’s leadership taking steps to guarantee that opportunity for the next generation. On Thursday, the House of Representatives voted 278 to 146 to pass […]

Whether it’s by bad design or bad luck, Washington has its share of tax problems, and then some. The latest problem is a so-called “tax extender” that allows Washington residents to deduct state and local sales taxes on their federal returns. The extender has to be renewed every year by Congress, and it isn’t easy. […]

In the wake of a new statement from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) calling for a “broader, bolder” approach to education, the educational blogosphere lit up with responses. Early Ed Watch gives subtly short shrift to degreed teachers, small class sizes, sufficient funding, etc., arguing that: Educational quality lies, first, in the quality of the […]

Wednesday’s column in the Everett Herald, by Marilyn Watkins (Policy Director, EOI) on the meaning of Juneteenth is a hopeful – and compelling – reminder that overcoming interests entrenched against America’s promise of freedom and opportunity means fighting to win: universal health coverage, paid family leave, high quality preschool, and better access to higher education […]

In the classic children’s novel Phantom Tollbooth, the hero Milo meets the Mathemagician, an impressive man who carries a giant pencil that he uses as a wand. The Mathemagician invites Milo and his friends to a lunch of subtraction stew, which makes them hungrier rather than fuller with each bowl. Lately, that seems to be […]

While California has garnered the most recent headlines for its universal retirement savings account plan, Gail MarksJarvis at the Chicago Times notes Washington and Connecticut are also moving forward on the same front. The conference in Chicago mentioned by MarksJarvis was organized by EOI, and included local representatives from the AARP, the Retirement Research Foundation, […]

Like a recent TV reporter from the New York area, a Texas blogger has done some simple math to see whether it’s really possible to get by on a minimum wage job. Subtracting housing, transportation, food, clothing, and health care leaves an estimated $50-$150 a month. That sounds tough, but maybe doable – until a […]

Workers earning a minimum wage in Washington today (that’s $8.07/hour – sub-poverty level for a single adult) are probably spending 18% of their paychecks on gas, at $4.00 a gallon, 15 gallons of gas a week. Reporter Renata Stiehl (WENY-Twin TIers, NY) recently spent a week shopping on the paycheck of an average minimum wage […]

Journalist, author and columnist Eve Tahmincioglu hinted in a previous post that (perhaps counter to intuitition) men have been major beneficiaries of California’s paid family leave program: Many people I talk to think paid family leave will end up benefitting only women who take time off right after they give birth or who typically end […]

Monday’s Yakima Herald-Tribune features once-retired Nancy Richardson, now 70 years old, back on the job hunt after ending her nursing career four years ago to care for ailing family members. “I can’t afford to maintain a separate household,” says Richardson, who lives in Cowiche. “I will probably have to live with my kids, but I’m […]

Thanks to DMI Blog for this memo on paid sick leave written by the Heritage Foundation (see the clip) that gives three reasons why the Foundation doesn’t support paid sick leave: 1. Some workers have used FMLA to excuse tardiness and to skip work. 2. Co-workers face the burden of covering for shirking employees who […]

In the ongoing discussion over minimum wage laws, proponents say such policies provide a minimum safety net for workers and guarantee an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. Opponents often argue that a wage floor depresses demand for workers, creates higher unemployment, and even puts companies out of business. There’s new evidence to […]

Editor Tracy Warner takes a look at the evidence on early childhood education and urges Washington to make further investments in our economic future: Invest in early childhood education. Concentrate on children from families considered “at risk” due to poverty or other complicating factors. The rate of return will be true and measurable. Society will […]

Today’s workers have a lot on their plates. Whether its the cost of food, gas and housing, keeping a steady job in a rapidly changing economy, finding long-term care for parents or daycare for the kids – and for many people, it’s all that and then some – it’s too much to take on alone. […]

Sunday’s Chicago Tribune features a heartbreaking story about senior citizens playing bingo in the back of a grocery store, hoping for winnings like eggs, chicken, fruit, bread and fresh fish. One of them is 84-year-old Ruth Graves, a retired waitress living on Social Security, shops on Wednesdays to save 10 percent on her purchases, and […]

A financially secure retirement is part of the American dream – but about 50% of all working Americans are not covered by a retirement plan at their place of work. Employees of small- and medium- sized businesses are most at risk of going without access to a workplace-based retirement plan. This is not surprise, given […]

Cognitive dissonance is both a fascinating and terrifying ride. Case in point: responses to Carolyn McConnell’s article in Crosscut.com about Washington’s Family Leave Insurance program. McConnell writes: Two-thirds of comments expressed the same feeling: The legislation is “a token for the irresponsible,” a “confiscation of my tax dollars” for “social parasites.” One reader even called […]

Over on Crooked Timber and The Atlantic, Kathy G. and Megan McArdle are locked in a full-on, spirited debate on the merits, or lack thereof, of a minimum wage. It’s getting kind of medieval, with writers and readers hurling graphs – and words like “monopsony” – like rocks from a catapult against massive walls of […]

Mother’s Day is about love. But it’s also about flowers. And cards. And apparently, columnists. Dean Calbreath notes in the San Diego Union-Tribune that paid family leave insurance would be perhaps a less personal, but more welcome gift for many mothers: A string of studies last week suggested that American mothers – particularly working mothers […]

This is a bit of trickery that might have made even Houdini jealous. First comes a “nothing up my sleeve” assessment of the dismal state of the economy: We’re still shedding jobs, consumer confidence remains down, and discretionary spending shrinks as gas and grocery prices rise. Second, a little “abracadabra” (i.e., mumbo jumbo that really […]

The financial/credit crisis is drying up equity and putting homeowners upside-down in their mortgages, making student loans more difficult to get, and dimming prospects for retirement among many workers. Even though the United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, employers pay these workers less than workers who hold similar jobs elsewhere. Child-care […]

Jared Bernstein is former Chief Economist and Economic Policy Adviser to V.P. Joe Biden. Before beginning work in the White House, Jared was a senior economist and the director of the Living Standards Program at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. Jared presented at a salon at John Burbank’s house on May 2, 2008. […]

New America’s Early Ed Watch rounds up progress – and backsliding – in Minneapolis toward universal full-day kindergarten. Seattle Public Schools get a mention as a cautionary tale: Two-thirds of kindergarteners in the Minneapolis Public Schools are in free full-day kindergarten classes. But in February, the school board there began considering a proposal to charge […]

One by-product of the debate in Kansas over whether to raise its minimum wage (currently $2.65 per hour): a list of facts about minimum wage laws by Graham Kreicker: Arguments against making the minimum wage a living wage are based on the faulty claim that it will hurt corporate profits and result in higher unemployment. […]