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Workers' compensation agreement reached

The major policy obstacle to ending the special sessions was lifted Sunday when negotiators reached agreement on workers’ compensation reform. It does less than business wanted, arguable much less, and goes further than union leaders deem acceptable. So, by the common standard that a good compromise is one that leaves all parties at least partially […]

House leadership should allow vote on needed workers' comp reform

In my column today, I call on Democratic leaders in the House to bring to the floor legislation that would allow voluntary settlement agreements for workers’ compensation claims. This is not a new theme. An excellent editorial in the Herald of Everett urged the bipartisan majorities in both houses of the Legislature to hold firm […]

The Costliness of Washington's Workers' Compensation System

As the debate over workers’ compensation reform continues, a questionable number keeps popping up related to the costs of Washington’s system compared to other states. As we have consistently argued (see here, here, and here), the workers’ compensation system in Washington must be reformed.  Washington has the nation’s second highest benefits per covered worker ($778.36 […]

CBO on Public Pensions

If our recent policy brief on public pensions piqued your interest in the subject, you’re in luck — the Congressional Budget Office has released its own issue brief: The Underfunding of State and Local Pension Plans. I was glad to see it, because it does a good job of explaining the issues involved, in a […]

Pew on Public Pensions

This week the Pew Center on the States put out a report on state pensions and retiree health care costs.  Pew finds that the gap between the promises states made for employees’ retirement benefits and the money they set aside to pay for them grew to at least $1.26 trillion in fiscal year 2009, resulting […]

Barone on the "death of the 'defined benefit'"

Last week, we published a brief on reforming public pensions. It’s timely, then, to link to Michael Barone’s column on the last days of the defined benefit pension. This sounds right: Defined benefit policies assume a static society. But we live in a dynamic society, and defined benefit policies cannot keep up with constant change. […]

New Brief: Reforming Public Pensions

In Reforming Public Pensions, we look at the current state of Washington’s public pension system and the methods of calculating unfunded liabilities in these plans.  The good news is that Washington is in much better shape than most other states.  The bad news is that all states are probably understating their unfunded liabilities by assuming […]

Moderate Democrats get workers' compensation reform bill moving again

Yesterday’s move by moderate Democrats in the House to amend the bipartisan workers’ compensation reform bill passed by the Senate has revived prospects for legislative success in the waning days of the legislative session. This is an issue the Research Council has followed closely for a long time. Most recently, we published The Time Has […]

The case for workers' comp reform

In my column this morning, I review the U.S. Chamber of Commerce 50-state study of employment costs. Washington ranks in the third tier of states, those with poor employment policies and high costs. (Emily notes here that the chamber’s data are a couple of years old. We’d look worse now.) Jason Hagey at Olympia Business […]

New Thrive Washington paper on employment cost drivers published today

The latest in the series of white papers published by the Washington Research Council and Washington Roundtable examines workers’ compensation reform and unemployment insurance. In particular, the report urges lawmakers to act this session to fix the state’s broken workers’ comp system. Here’s the link to Employment Cost Drivers in Washington State: The Case for […]