Blog

How to fund Seattle's Office of Labor Standards?

For the last several months a discussion has been ongoing in Seattle about how to increase funding for the Office of Labor Standards (OLS). The OLS was established in 2015 to enforce standards related to city ordinances like the minimum wage and paid sick leave. An April 1 staff memo to the Seattle City Council’s […]

Labor policies and the compensation mix

Daniel Drezner has an interesting item in the Washington Post about the Obama administration's new overtime rules. (The salary threshold will increase from $455 per week to $913 per week in December, so more workers will be entitled to overtime pay if they work more than 40 hours a week.) Drezner notes that the new rules will […]

Boys & Girls Clubs of King County CEO speaks out against 'predictive scheduling'

On the heels of new minimum wage laws, the Seattle City Council, some members of the state Legislature and others are now setting their sights on so-called "predictive scheduling," which would impose mandates on how employers schedule their employees' shifts. The largely union-funded groups advocating the policy say it would help workers – particularly those […]

Job openings, some worker shortages expected in aerospace industry

An article in today's Puget Sound Business Journal brought our attention to a new "Talent Pipeline Study for Aerospace" published by the Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County. It's full of fascinating data on employment in the aerospace industry through 2023. Some highlights: While "overall employment within the aerospace industry will decline by 0.8% annually from 2013 […]

As technology advances, people will need advanced skills

Opportunity Washington has a good post about how technology is changing work — many jobs will increasingly be performed by robots and computers. The technology is disruptive, upsetting long-standing operations and careers and the transition will be costly. But ultimately technologies that increase efficiency–cutting costs, boosting productivity and reliability–will win out.  Relatedly, in last week's episode […]

A baseline for future study of Seattle's minimum wage

The UW research team that is studying Seattle's minimum wage ordinance released a report earlier this week that provides baseline employer survey and worker interview information. (There will be more reports from the team as time goes on.) Under the ordinance, the minimum wage in the city will gradually increase to $15 (how quickly depends […]

A positive outlook for West Coast ports, and will robots handle more cargo in the future?

The Journal of Commerce has an interesting story on the outlook for West Coast ports. 2015 wasn't a great year: "If the recession year of 2009 is excluded, laden containers moving through West Coast ports in 2015 hit the lowest level in 10 years." But Washington ports did see growth: The Seattle-Tacoma port complex was […]

Universities and the proposed overtime rule

Last summer the Obama administration proposed increasing the overtime pay threshold. Currently, certain workers that earn less than $455 a week are eligible for overtime pay. The proposal would increase the threshold to $970 a week. As a Nation's Restaurant News story notes, The rules could have a significant impact on employers’ costs and management […]

How Oregon's minimum wage law will impact university budgets

Oregon is the first state in the nation to require a higher minimum in cities than in more rural areas. Employers in areas within Portland's urban growth boundary will have to pay a minimum of $9.75 beginning July 1, 2016, and growing to $14.75 on July 1, 2022. Employers in medium-density counties will have to […]

Audit finds $420,363 in UI benefits were improperly paid to people in jail

Yesterday the State Auditor's Office (SAO) released an audit that identified people who received unemployment insurance (UI) benefits while in jail (and thus likely ineligible for UI benefits). The audit covers the period of July 1, 2013 through September 30, 2014, and it looked at just eight jails (of 57). Still, it found 1,911 potential […]