Blog

The courts and public pension COLA cases — Washington is an outlier

The Center for Retirement Research reports that Between 2010 and 2013, 17 states (with a total of 30 plans) enacted legislation that reduced, suspended, or eliminated COLAs for current workers and often for current retirees. Of those 17 states, 12 of the cost-of-living adjustment changes have been challenged in court. In nine of those states, […]

Seattle paid sick leave and reduced employee-employer flexibility

Increasing the minimum wage in Seattle is getting all the employment policy attention right now, but it is one of many compensation and benefit mandates. Another of those mandates in Seattle is paid sick leave, which went into effect September 1, 2012. A second report on the ordinance was released April 23. (More on the […]

More details on Seattle's proposed $15 minimum wage

The Puget Sound Business Journal has a good overview. As the PSBJ reports, it’s complicated. Under the mayor’s proposal, which the City Council has to approve, businesses with fewer than 500 employees would have up to seven years to reach $15 an hour. But counting what is called “temporary compensation responsibility,” these small businesses would […]

Seattle mayor announces $15 minimum wage agreement endorsed by most members of his income inequality advisory committee

Mayor Ed Murray just concluded a press conference in which he announced that his appointed committee has reached agreement on a phased-in $15 minimum wage. Here’s the schedule:          

Minimum wage, maximum hassle. Uncompromising activists threaten to take $15 to November ballot.

My column today’s looks at the ongoing wrangling in Seattle City Hall over how to get to a $15 minimum wage. What Seattle does matters statewide. So far, no one has devised a containment strategy to prevent Seattle politics from spreading. It’s not Vegas. What happens in Seattle doesn’t stay in Seattle. …Here’s what’s clear: […]

Review roundup: Some contrarian take's on Piketty's "Capital in the 21st Century"

I’ve not read the book. Yet. But I’ve enjoyed reading the reviews of Thomas Piketty’s controversial, celebrated, and widely cited book on income inequality, capital and labor. Here are a few for you. Robert J. Samuelson in the Washington Post: Though Piketty is an economist, his book is essentially a work of political science. He […]

Minimum wage and the kludgeocracy

In this week’s EconTalk episode, host Russ Roberts talks with Steven Teles about the kludgeocracy. Teles wrote about the idea of a kludgeocracy in a Fall 2013 article in National Affairs. Some excerpts from the article: If anything, we have arrived at a form of government with no ideological justification whatsoever. . . . Understanding, […]

Looking beyond employment effects of higher minimum wage: loss of non-monetary benefits, increased workload, heavier payroll taxes

Mark Perry, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, effectively counters claims that a higher minimum wage has minimal impacts on employment. I’ve argued before on CD that saying (or finding empirically) that minimum wage increases have no or very small effects on employment levels is not the same as saying that minimum wage increases have no negative effects on low-skilled and unskilled […]

Paid family leave proponents giving up on the states

Stateline reports: After lobbying state by state for years, some supporters of paid family leave say it’s time for a federal solution. A proposal in Congress from Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York would export the models used in California, New Jersey and Rhode Island nationwide. Those are the only three states with their […]

Employment policy links

$15 Now files ballot initiative to raise Seattle’s minimum wage: Activists this morning filed a Seattle city charter amendment to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour starting Jan. 1, 2015. The measure calls for a three-year phase-in for small business and non-profit organizations and defines a small business as any with 250 or […]