906 Columbia St. SW, Olympia, WA, 98501 360-943-0608 WSLC.org TheStand.

org

As Washingtons economy recovers from the Great Recession, many good middle-class jobs
have been replaced by low-wage jobs with few prospects for stability and economic growth.
Workers in 7 of the 10 largest occupation groups earn less than $30,000 per year and rarely
get health and retirement benefits. This suppresses our state economy and widens inequality.
For a true economic recovery, the State Legislature must adopt policies that will rebuild the
middle class by lifting low-wage workers out of poverty, protecting and investing in jobs with dignity,
and defending against attacks on working families standards. The following 2015 policy proposals
will promote real economic recovery, strengthen local communities, and improve our quality of life in Washington.

2015

2015

Rebuilding the Middle Class

A shocking number of
workers are denied the
wages they are owed
for the work they perform. Taking effective steps to combat
wage theft is the right thing to do, but it will also put millions
of dollars back in to our economy, improve the fiscal health
of our local communities, and put earnings on the kitchen
tables of working families across the state. The House of
Representatives passed a package of four wage theft bills
in 2014, addressing Employee Misclassification,
Wage Recovery, Treble Damages, and Anti-Retaliation.

END WAGE THEFT

No worker should have

to choose between
taking care of him or
herself while ill, and
losing a days wage.
It is a cruel choice to expect of anyone, and it endangers public
health when cooks, servers, and health-care workers expose
others to their illnesses. Paid sick leave will provide some
economic stability to families who are at the margins, and will
promote good public health practices. The Paid Sick and Safe
Leave bill passed the House of Representatives in 2014, and
should be passed into law quickly in 2015.

PAID SICK
AND SAFE LEAVE

The typical woman

working full time in
Washington earns just
80 cents to a mans
dollar, resulting in an
annual wage gap of $11,500 per year. Wage discrimination
exists in almost every occupation, and mothers and women
of color face even larger gaps in earnings. The Legislature
should protect workers from retaliation for inquiring about,
discussing, or disclosing information about their wages, and
how their pay compares with others. Employers should not
retaliate against workers for asking about differentials in pay,
scheduling, and career opportunities. There is no reason
workers who have the same experience and same job should
have different pay.

EQUAL PAY
OPPORTUNITY ACT

No one who works

full time should have
to live in poverty.
The Legislature should
phase in a raise in the
minimum wage and continue inflation-indexed increases. In
2015, full-time minimum wage workers in Washington still earn
less than $20,000 per year. The minimum wage is supposed
to assure the maintenance of the minimum standard of living
necessary for health, efficiency, and general well being of
workers. But families cant meet this standard with such low
pay. The Legislature should increase the minimum wage, and
defend against any subminimum training wage, tip and benefit
penalties, or carve-outs for certain kinds of businesses.

STATEWIDE
MINIMUM WAGE

Americans are on the

verge of a retirement
disaster as workers
lack the means to enjoy
a dignified retirement.
Thats true for hundreds
of thousands of
workers here in Washington. One in four Washingtonians
between ages 45 and 64 have less than $25,000 saved for
retirement thats more than 460,000 of our family members
and neighbors who will not be able to access a secure living
in their golden years. The lack of retirement security has an
impact on state budgets as many older adults rely on safety
net programs to sustain themselves in retirement. This is one
reason why elected officials must reject all attempts to weaken
or eliminate the pensions promised to our public servants,
and restore a COLA for PERS1/TRS1 retirees. 401(k)-style
retirement plans alone do not provide sufficient retirement
security. Washingtons pensions are healthy, and will provide a
modest income for thousands of retirees. Instead, legislators
should study retirement policies the state could adopt, like a
state Social Security supplement. The 2015 Legislature should
take the first step toward ensuring that all Washingtonians will
be secure in stable retirement plans.

PENSION AND
RETIREMENT
SECURITY

SEE REVERSE for Creating Secure and Stable Jobs

Widely considered to be the voice of labor in our state, the Washington

State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, is the largest union organization in the state,
representing the interests of more than 600 local unions and trade councils
with about 400,000 rank-and-file members throughout Washington.
CONTACT the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO
906 S. Columbia St. SW, Olympia, WA, 98501
360-943-0608
Jeff Johnson, President Lynne Dodson, Secretary-Treasurer
Teresa Mosqueda, Government Affairs Director (206-353-5276)
Joe Kendo, Legislative & Policy Director (206-747-8279)

Creating Secure and Stable Jobs

When workers sacrifice
their bodies for their
jobs and employers, they
should not have to worry
about the reliability or
timeliness of their care and insurance benefits. The Legislature
should adopt bills ensuring full and timely benefit payments,
and crack down on employers who delay benefits.

WORKERS
COMPENSATION

1) Enact penalties for self-insurers who fail to pay benefits

pending appeals to the BIIA.
2) Ensure that legal fees/costs are not paid out of judgments
meant for injured workers medical and time-loss.
3) End the disparate treatment of injured workers with
permanent partial disabilities.
Washington states
public infrastructure is
at a crossroads; we can
invest in desperately
needed public projects
now or we can pay more in crisis management later. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave our infrastructure a C grade,
including a D+ for our roads and transit, and a C+ for drinking
water. Hospitals and schools are bursting at the seams, yet no
plan exists to address their needs. In 2015, Washington needs
job-creating investment in infrastructure, critical projects that
will get more expensive the longer they remain unaddressed:

JOB-CREATING
INFRASTRUCTURE

Invest in Schools: In 2014, the House passed a bipartisan

school construction plan to invest over $700 million dollars in
public school construction and retrofits to support the decrease
in class size mandated by the McCleary decision. In 2015, the
Legislature should fully support this school construction effort.
Invest in Water: Washingtons local communities need new
infrastructure to capture more water for drinking and irrigation,
control flooding in our river valleys, and clean storm run-off to
protect the water resources that we all rely upon.
Invest in Public Buildings: As public buildings ageand our
needs changethe Legislature can achieve long-term cost
savings by adopting maintenance and retrofitting schedules to
ensure Washington leads the way in energy efficiency. Further,
as ordered by the Supreme Court, the state should invest in
additional capacity at mental health hospitals and community
housing to support our communities mental health needs.
Invest in Transportation: Workers and businesses in Washington need reliable transportation choices. To compete in an
increasingly globalized market, we need predictable freight
mobility, less traffic congestion, more public transit, and a commitment to bridge and road maintenance.
1) Share responsibility:
The Affordable Care
Act intended to cover
the uninsured, not
give loopholes to large
corporations to create more uninsured. When large companies
cut pay and hours or end coverage, they push their employees
onto Medicaid. When they do, the companies ought to help
pay for the states portion of Medicaid costs. The assessment
would boost provider payments and invest in the safety net.

2) Evaluate coverage: Many low-wage and part-time
workers with fluctuating incomes struggle to buy and keep
coverage. The state must look at the data to see what we can
do to improve access to affordable
coverage for the uninsured, and help
prevent churning on and off of coverage.

FULFILL A.C.A.
PROMISES

Every worker has a

right to work in a safe
environment, however,
workers in hospitals and
rail yards are denied this
right due to irresponsibly low staffing. The Legislature should
require minimum safety standards for these workers.

WORKPLACE
SAFETY

1) Healthcare Workers: Ensure safe staffing levels for nurses;

provide uninterrupted breaks and limits to mandatory
overtime for health care workers to prevent fatigue and risk
to patient safety.
2) Rail Workers: Ensure safe staffing levels on trains, with
extra protection for those hauling hazardous materials;
reduce fatigue-related errors in our rail yards by regulating
yardmaster hours of service; additional regulation of rail
crew transportation contractors for the safety of railroad
crew van passengers, and rail safety regulatory agency
consolidation and reform.
In 2015, the Legislature
must put a stop to raids
on the public treasury,
implement real tax
incentive and revenue
accountability, and end carve-out reporting requirements for
certain companies. The following bills are imperative in 2015:

TAX & REVENUE

ACCOUNTABILITY

1) The Aerospace Tax Incentives Accountability Act will

ensure that aerospace tax breaks provide a return on
investment by preserving and ensuring living-wage jobs,
maintaining promised employment levels, protecting wage
standards, and including clawback rules.
2) The Taxpayer Protection Act will create more transparent,
accountable, equitable, contracting requirements for the
public and private sectors. This act would require that state
agencies demonstrate cost savings prior to outsourcing
public work to private interests, and require those agencies
to hold companies accountable when they fail to perform to
the terms of their contracts.
For too long the state
government has not
sufficiently funded
what is supposed to
be its paramount duty:
public education. As a result, our K-12 public schools have
suffered under unacceptable teacher-student ratios, underpaid education professionals, and soaring higher education
tuition costs. Inflated tuition is creating crushing debt and
eliminating the opportunity for an affordable college education.
Our community and technical college faculty have not only been
denied COLAs, but also the step pay increases they should earn
for professional development and experience.

Investing in education at every level, fair pay for
teachers, and decreasing the cost of higher education will
invest in our future workforce, create thousands of good jobs,
reduce the cycle of debt, and create greater opportunities for
Washington workers and families.

INVEST IN
EDUCATION

In addition to this Shared Prosperity Agenda,

the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO
will support a range of issues that address
income inequality, economic opportunity, and
tax fairness, as well as legislation championed
by our affiliated unions.

906 Columbia St. SW, Olympia, WA, 98501 360-943-0608 WSLC.org TheStand.org
opeiu8/afl-cio (1-19-15)