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Study: Fully funding public pensions in Washington would require $1,371 per household per year

As Josh Barro wrote this summer, Pensions are complicated, and when they are not causing huge problems, they are boring . . . . Consequently, it has been easy for lawmakers to ignore the long-term risks to which they have been exposing taxpayers; it has not been hard for public-employee unions to talk these lawmakers […]

New Brief: Labor Costs in Washington

In a new policy brief today, we take a general look at some aspects of labor costs in Washington. Unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation have been reformed recently by the legislature, but they remain costly compared to other states. Additionally, Washington’s minimum wage is the highest in the country, and laws regarding prevailing wage, paid […]

Washington's Minimum Wage Rising

The Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) announced today that Washington's minimum wage will increase to $9.19 in 2013. For 2012, Washington's state minimum wage is the highest in the country at $9.04. (The cities of Santa Fe and San Francisco have higher municipal minimum wages.)The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25. In 2012, the […]

The NFL and Workers' Comp

Workers’ compensation is a hot topic for us, and so it is for the National Football League. In honor of football season, let’s turn it over to an article by Darren Rovell on ESPN.com today: National Football League teams are facing a significant threat to their finances because of a legal option available to nearly […]

Pension Odds and Ends

First, I found this post, from Kil Huh of the Pew Center on the States (via Walter Russell Mead), to be interesting. Huh’s “five truths about public employee pensions” are: Public pension funds face real funding challenges in a majority of states. The funding gaps have real impacts on taxpayers and states’ budgets. Policy makers […]

No Free Lunch: WA's Workers' Comp Benefits Still the Highest in the Nation in 2010

Earlier this month, the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) released its annual report, Workers’ Compensation: Benefits, Coverage, and Costs. The report has a two-year lag, so the data is from 2010. It shows that in 2010, Washington’s workers’ compensation benefits per covered worker were still the highest in the nation, at $865.67. Alaska was […]

More from the State Budget Crisis Task Force Report

On Tuesday, Dick linked to the State Budget Crisis Task Force report. As he noted, the report shows how states face structural budget problems that were only exacerbated by the recession. The report’s “major threats to fiscal sustainability” include Medicaid, underfunded pension promises, and state budget practices — topics that we’ve written about often. Although […]

Public Pension Accounting Changes

Yesterday the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) approved new standards for public employee pension accounting. The new standards will not directly affect pension liabilities; rather, they make the true nature of those liabilities more clear. As GASB’s chairman said of the changes, The new standards will improve the way state and local governments report their […]

Retirement and Life Expectancy

The Economist Online has an interesting chart today on retirement. It shows life expectancies, official retirement ages, and effective retirement ages in 1970 and 2010, for 22 countries. As the Economist notes, pensionable ages have failed to keep pace with longevity.This comes at an increasing cost to the state. The OECD expects governments' expenditure on […]

Public Pensions Face a "Painful Reckoning"

Over the weekend, the New York Times ran a good overview of the problem with public pension assumed rates of return on investments. As the article begins, “Few investors are more bullish these days than public pension funds.” The issue is that many public pension funds assume rates of return around 8 percent — much […]