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Local government pension and retiree health care funding shortfalls

According to the Pew Center on the States this week, in 2009, pension liabilities of 61 major cities in the U.S. were $385 billion, of which $286 billion was funded. Additionally, these cities had retiree health care liabilities of $126 billion, of which only $8 billion was funded. In total dollars, the 61 cities had […]

Unemployment Insurance and Workers' Compensation Rates for 2013

Today the Employment Security Department (ESD) announced that unemployment insurance rates will either stay the same or be reduced for most employers in Washington for 2013. In 2013, 14 percent of employers will move into lower rate classes, 61 percent won’t change, and 25 percent will move into higher rate classes. More than one-third of […]

Maps of Unemployment Benefits Maximum Duration Since 2008

In 2008, the federal government enacted temporary emergency unemployment compensation (EUC) for people who run out of their regular state unemployment benefits. The program expires at the end of the year. Washington workers are eligible for 26 weeks of regular unemployment benefits, and under the EUC program, they may currently be eligible for 37 additional […]

Can WA Eliminate Public Pension COLAs?

In 2011, the legislature eliminated future automatic cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for members of the Public Employees’ Retirement System Plan 1 (PERS 1) and the Teachers’ Retirement System Plan 1 (TRS 1). As we wrote in an April 2011 policy brief, In 1995, the legislature passed a bill providing retirees in PERS 1 and TRS 1 […]

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 […]