community « Washington Policy Watch

June 25, 2010 • 8:53 am 0

Paid family leave: U.S. families falling (way) behind the rest of the world

The social (and economic!) value of paid family leave benefits is undeniable. Research indicates more bonding time lowers rates of infant mortality, improves infant health, and has a strong positive correlation to improved access to medical services. And when workers have time to recover from a serious illness or care for an ailing parent, they have higher morale and are more productive when they return to work.

But despite these obvious benefits, the United States has been reluctant to guarantee workers the right to earn parental leave on the job. As the only industrialized nation without a paid maternity leave system, some U.S. states have taken it upon themselves to implement state-level paid family leave insurance programs — allowing workers to earn paid maternity leave. But these benefits are only available in 5 states, and are linked to the ‘disabled status’ of the pregnant women — meaning fathers and adoptive parents are not eligible to earn the benefit.

So what are mothers in the other 45 U.S. states (and American fathers) missing out on? Here’s a quick look at paid leave programs in Sweden, Canada and Australia, compared to that of the U.S. — and Washington State in particular. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: health care, work and family, children, community, economic security, economy, health, paid family leave

June 11, 2010 • 12:23 pm 0

All we are saying is give Reese’s Pieces a chance: Candy tax worth protesting

Peter Callaghan nails it in a wry, tongue-in-cheek column about taxes on candy and bottle water:

Some have said paying more for candy is the least we can do to keep public safety agencies intact, to assure that public schools and colleges don’t suffer even deeper cuts, to help maintain the already frayed safety net.

Well, I happen to think it is unfair to fund schools for Dick and Jane by taxing Mike And Ike.

I can understand applying the sales tax to discretionary purchases like clothing, shoes, cars, home improvements, restaurant meals, toilet paper and winter coats for children.

But when they go after life’s necessities like Hello Kitty Candy Lip Gloss and Harry Potter Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans (in the fabric bag) – not to mention new taxes on pop and beer and Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water that we need to wash down all those Gummi Worms – they have gone too far.

Cough if you need sick leave

The short, lumpy red couch in Stili Klikizos’ second-grade classroom at Milwaukee’s Fratney Elementary School was meant for quiet-time reading. Now it’s “the sick couch,” a place for ill students to lie down as they await the bus that takes everybody home at day’s end. “The parents work and will lose pay if they come get them,” she told me as I sat on the couch. Thanks to her union contract, Klikizos gets 12.5 paid sick days a year. Many of her students’ parents aren’t so fortunate. “It crosses socioeconomic lines. Sometimes kids tell me not to even call, since ‘Mom will get fired if she leaves.’” Last year, several couch-sitters were belatedly diagnosed with swine flu.

The no-show parents are among the 40 percent of the private sector who don’t receive sick pay. Among full-time workers, 73 percent are covered by paid medical days. (Ninety-one percent have paid vacation, 89 percent paid holidays). The percentage is far lower on every count for part-time workers, though it’s not just the motel cleaning lady or immigrant dishwasher who is scared to call in sick, see a doctor, or pick up a kid from school. Retail sales supervisors and information technology managers deal with the same domestic crises.

News and Views: Cutting through the rhetoric on state taxes and spending to see the real effect on our economy.

In which Senator Debbie Regala (D-27, Tacoma) takes a clear-eyed look at state taxes and spending over the long haul, and Amy Kinsel (Professor of History at Shoreline Community College) points out the short-sighted irony of cutting funding for the very community colleges people need to retrain for new jobs during a recession. Plus, EOI gets a little ink in a piece from Olympia Newswire.

Yes, state spending should match the revenues at hand | But when you hear that state spending has increased, please remember we didn’t spend any more money per person than we did 10 years ago. Our state’s population has increased by nearly a million people over the last 10 years. Despite that, state spending per capita, revenues per capita and state spending relative to the state economy have all declined during that same period. | Senator Debbie Regala

Two-Year Colleges Can’t Absorb Further Cuts Without Turning Students Away | The cruel irony of last year’s legislative session is that Washington State deeply cut funding to higher education just as enrollment skyrocketed. As unemployment grew last year, many Washingtonians decided to enter or return to college, only to find that they were being asked to pay more for less. With further budget cuts next year this problem will get worse. | More: Olympia Newswire

Liberal Revenue Agents: 115 Groups Unite to Promote New Taxes | The quality of life for tens of thousands of Washington’s most vulnerable residents depends on a group with a clunky name that most of them have not, and will never, hear of: the Rebuilding Our Economic Future Coalition. Nearing the midway point of the legislative session, it is unclear whether the Coalition will be able to achieve its ambitious goal — but the Coalition’s lobbyists are putting options before legislators, drawn from the work of liberal economists like the Economic Opportunity Institute’s Marilyn Watkins. | More: Olympia Newswire

Filed under: education, state economy, tax and budget, budget, community, higher education, middle class, politics, public policy, revenue, school, taxes, unemployment, washington state, work

Washington Policy Watch

Paid family leave: U.S. families falling (way) behind the rest of the world

All we are saying is give Reese’s Pieces a chance: Candy tax worth protesting

Cough if you need sick leave

News and Views: Cutting through the rhetoric on state taxes and spending to see the real effect on our economy.

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