News & Stories

Work-life standards like Seattle’s new paid sick days law aren’t the only way public institutions can support strong, healthy families. Grant-making agencies can also have a significant influence. Take, for example, the new standards recently released by the National Science Foundation (NSF): Internal changes to a government agency’s home-and-work policy don’t normally warrant a White […]

Via Washington News Service: OLYMPIA, Wash. – The minimum wage in Washington state goes up 37 cents on Jan. 1, to $9.04 an hour. Washington is one of only 10 states that ensure by law that their minimum wage keeps up with inflation, which was calculated at just over 4 percent this year. Whenever there’s […]

Washington State will increase its minimum wage rate from $8.67 an hour to $9.04 on January 1, 2012, the state Department of Labor and Industries announced today, in line with state law that provides for annual rate adjustments that keep pace with the rising cost of living. Today’s announcement echoes similar announcements from officials in […]

From the Everett Herald: What does cross country running have to do with education and opportunity? Turns out, a lot. Last Saturday high school teams from Monroe, Woodinville, Seattle, Shelton, Yakima, the Tri-Cities and White River, among others, showed up at the Bellevue High School Cross Country Invitational to see how they could do competing […]

From the Women’s Media Center: Seattle recently became the third U.S. city to adopt paid sick days standards. With an 8 to 1 council vote on September 12, Seattle joins San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and the state of Connecticut in establishing this common-sense public health protection. As the lead sponsor of Seattle’s sick leave ordinance, […]

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn signed landmark city legislation into law today, ensuring that hundreds of thousands of people working in Seattle will be able to earn paid sick days on the job. When the new law takes effect next September, an estimated 150,000 workers who previously did not earn paid sick days will start to […]

Reprinted from The Everett Herald It isn’t any surprise that people are pessimistic and negative right now. If we have jobs, we are worried about keeping them. If we don’t, we are worried about making ends meet, especially as unemployment insurance has run out for tens of thousands of jobless workers in our state. We […]

Guest post by Stan Sorscher In a somewhat contentious Town Hall meeting, some of my Congressmember’s constituents, including me, were challenging his adherence to “free trade” policies. In his defense he said, “Go watch The Constant Gardener.” So I did. Many scenes are shot in Africa, with vivid images of urban slums and timeless poverty, […]

With an 8-1 vote, the Seattle City Council passed a landmark ordinance to ensure workers in all but the city’s smallest businesses can earn paid sick days on the job – one of the strongest such policies in the nation. The Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce, comprised of over 100 local organizations and small […]

From the Seattle Times: Seattle appears poised to become the third city in the country to require businesses to provide paid sick leave to their workers. Six of the City Council’s nine members signed onto a plan Thursday that mandates businesses with at least five employees to provide at least five paid sick days, and […]

From the Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce: It comes as little surprise that paid sick days have received overwhelming public support in Seattle. But until now, it’s been difficult to say with precision just how strong that support really is. Released today, a poll conducted in late August shows more than two-thirds of likely […]

By Cienna Madrid, The Stranger Keep this in mind as you bite into a juicy burger at your favorite digs this week: An estimated 40 percent of Seattle’s workforce can’t get a paid day off of work when they’re sick. For restaurant workers, this means serving food while they also cough, sniffle, rub their noses… […]

From the Lake Stevens Journal: SEATTLE – The Seattle City Council will soon vote on a provision that would make it easier for working parents to cope with sick children, heating the debate about requiring employers to offer paid sick leave. The issue takes on new significance at the start of the school year. Sick […]

Amidst nationwide efforts to dismantle workplace standards, new poll results released for Labor Day by the National Partnership for Women & Families reveal that voters in Connecticut, the first state to pass a paid sick days law, overwhelmingly support the law and are poised to reward legislators who voted for it. The Labor Day poll […]

From the Seattle Times: By Makini Howell and Dr. David Springer AS a chef and as a doctor, we are often asked our opinion. Usually it’s about what’s good on the menu or what’s good to treat an illness, not some policy at Seattle City Council. Today we offer our opinion about Seattle’s proposal to […]

From the Everett Herald: Labor Day was first celebrated on Sept. 5, 1882 by the members of the Central Labor Union in New York. During the following decade, several states and cities made Labor Day an official holiday. Meanwhile. the Pullman Co. of Chicago built a company town to produce its railroad cars. Its residents […]

By Tatsuko Go Hollo, EOI Intern Women have long been identified as society’s caregivers, and there’s plenty of research to back that up. Not only do women spend twice as much time as men caring for members of the household, but nearly three quarters of elder care is performed by women. Unfortunately, much of this […]

By Tatsuko Go Hollo, EOI Intern It’s no secret that women are paid less than men across many industries. It’s also been well-documented that women are much more likely than men to work part-time. Unfortunately, employees who work part-time are often ineligible for essential benefits, such as health insurance, paid leave or a retirement plan. […]

The fate of special business tax exemptions is once again under consideration in Washington state – but not by state legislators. (At least, not yet.) This time, a citizen commission is reviewing tax exemptions to determine their economic impact – that is, whether or not their special treatment can be justified by increased economic activity […]

Excerpted from the inaugural edition of The Evans School Review, an annual peer-reviewed journal that publishes multidisciplinary research in public policy and management at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs: When I started at the Graduate School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington (now the Evans School), I had little inclination […]