Emily Makings

"Student-athletes" and workers' comp

Football players at Northwestern University have filed a petition to unionize. According to ESPN, the approval process could take years. Here’s the part of the story that interested me the most: Northwestern is expected to oppose the action on the grounds athletes are not employees, and the NCAA, the trade association representing the athletic interests […]

2013 union membership in Washington

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its 2013 union membership report on Friday. The total union membership rate nationally was 11.3 percent (no change since 2012). The public-sector union membership rate was 35.3 percent and the private-sector rate was 6.7 percent. Washington’s total union membership rate was 18.9 percent (4th highest in the country). Additionally, […]

Defined benefit pensions are great for employees — until they aren't

The 2013 Employee Benefits Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that of all private sector employees, 19 percent have access to a defined benefit pension and 59 percent have access to a defined contribution retirement plan. Conversely, of all state and local government workers, 83 percent have access to a defined benefit pension, […]

Through December, 77 percent of Washington exchange enrollees qualified for tax credit

The December enrollment report from the Washington Healthplanfinder was released today. It includes data from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31, and is a follow-up to the November report. As readers know, last week the exchange released enrollment numbers through Jan. 9. Although the numbers in today’s report are dated, the report includes some extra information […]

Medicaid data and the latest WA health exchange report

The deadline for enrolling in health insurance through the Washington Healthplanfinder for coverage beginning Jan. 1 was Dec. 23. In the weeks since then, the number of new qualified (private) health plan enrollments has been falling, as reported by the exchange this week. Through Jan. 9, QHP enrollments total 73,098 (27 percent of new enrollments […]

New Brief: Minimal Changes to 2013-15 Budget in Gov. Inslee's Proposed Supplemental

Last month, Gov. Inslee proposed a supplemental to the 2013-15 operating budget that would make minimal funding changes. The state of affairs has changed somewhat since the governor made his proposal. Given the state Supreme Court’s order regarding McCleary (which Dick wrote about here and here), in today’s state of the state address, Gov. Inslee said […]

School finance is not an issue only in Washington

An article from Kansas in today’s Stateline has a familiar ring to it: With no decision yet from the Kansas Supreme Court on a mammoth school-finance lawsuit, state legislators will begin their annual session amid deep uncertainty over the dominant issue of the year. Depending on what the court decides, the outcome could be anything […]

No surprises in latest Healthplanfinder report

There are no surprises in yesterday’s Washington Healthplanfinder enrollment report. Enrollments in qualified (private) health plans (QHP) dropped significantly since the last report, but that’s to be expected given that Dec. 23 was the deadline to buy coverage beginning Jan. 1. Between Oct. 1 and Jan. 2, a total of 71,205 individuals enrolled in a […]

New brief: The Best Interests of Washington's Workers' Compensation System

Washington continues to have the nation’s highest workers’ compensation benefits, which are accompanied by high costs. In a new policy brief, we look at the factors that make Washington’s system unusual, explain why the Oregon premium rate ranking study is a flawed measure of Washington’s costs, describe the cost drivers of the system, and consider […]

I-522 postscript

The Wall Street Journal reports that General Mills has begun making Cheerios free of genetically engineered ingredients. As we showed in our report, “Initiative 522: Costly, Flawed and Ill-Conceived,” genetically engineered foods are safe and widely used. I-522 would have required mandatory labeling of certain foods made with genetically engineered ingredients, but Washington voters rejected […]