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InFocus podcast: State employment, revenue forecast, charter schools & cell-phone taxes

A 2 percent increase in average workers' comp rates for 2016

The Department of Labor and Industries has announced that it will increase average workers' compensation rates by 2 percent next year. (This is the same as what they proposed in September.) As the Association of Washington Business noted in September, this is "nearly double what the department needs to break even.” Additionally, L&I will continue to do its part to keep […]

Employment policy roundup

Some employment policy-related items from the past few weeks: Yesterday Seattle Mayor Ed Murray proposed an ordinance that "harmonizes enforcement procedures, remedies key definitions in the Minimum Wage, Administrative Wage Theft, Paid Sick and Safe Time, and Job Assistance ordinances." (A summary of the various items within the proposal is here.) The proposal includes a private right of […]

New guidance from the Department of Labor for states setting up retirement savings plans

As the New York Times reports, several states have created state-based retirement savings plans. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has now issued guidance for states on the issue. According to the DOL press release, this is necessary because A lack of clarity of this area of the law has made other states reluctant to move forward […]

Speedy delivery and the retail workforce

The Seattle Times had an interesting story last week about how online shopping is changing holiday hiring. The National Retail Federation estimates that 46.1 percent of holiday sales this year will be made online. Thus: Amazon is expected to hire 25 percent more workers this holiday season than it did last year. About one out of seven […]

InFocus podcast: Minimum wage, marijuana revenues, carbon cap & recycling

InFocus: Possible charter schools ruling re-do, construction jobs, paid family leave study

This week we’re discussing the Attorney General’s request that the state Supreme Court reconsider its ruling that charter schools are unconstitutional, the number of construction jobs staying essentially flat statewide, and a federal grant for Washington to study the feasibility of paid family leave implementation. In this episode:

Washington won't have nation's highest minimum wage in 2016

The Department of Labor and Industries has announced that Washington’s minimum wage will not change in 2016 — it will remain at $9.47. Washington’s minimum wage has been indexed to inflation since 1998, but the Consumer Price Index decreased this year. (And the minimum wage can only stay steady or go up.) Washington’s minimum wage […]

A good read from the WSIA on the workers' comp rate proposal

Kris Tefft of the Washington Self-Insurers Association has written a detailed, interesting analysis of the proposed increase in average workers' compensation rates for next year, including how the different pieces of the rate proposal fit together. I recommend reading it in its entirety, but here's one highlight: He writes about why the break-even point for […]

WA's unfunded paid family leave program gets a federal grant — for a feasibility study

Today the U.S. Department of Labor announced that it has awarded $1.55 million in grants to eight states to study paid family leave implementation. Washington is one of those eight states; it will receive $247,000 “to study the feasibility and impacts of the Washington Family Leave Insurance Act of 2007 that remains unimplemented.” Gov. Inslee’s […]