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OLYMPIA–Who benefits from Washington state’s paid-leave program? While most workers don’t use the program, despite paying hundreds of dollars into the Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) fund each year, workers with higher incomes and new parents are the fund’s most frequent users. Many people also have used PFML for more than one claim. The fund can be used for bonding with babies, medical needs or both. The payroll tax for the program is set to rise again this week. Under the new rate of...
“Just as a leaking faucet results in the loss of water for no gain to the homeowner, concurrent enrollment results in additional costs to taxpayers without a benefit to the people served by Medicaid,” writes Democrat Pat McCarthy, Washington state’s auditor. She wrote it in a summary statement for an October report about wasteful spending in Medicaid that hurts both state and federal taxpayers. In an October report, “Examining Washington’s Concurrent Medicaid Enrollments,” the auditor’s o...
Well, this doesn’t help me like Washington state’s Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) any better. A state audit published Nov. 14 found that more than 2,000 people who tapped a fund that benefits only some workers with up to 18 weeks off work with pay — while harming the paychecks of most other workers, including those with low incomes — violated state law by taking money from the state’s unemployment insurance (UI) program at the same time. They had their PFML and ate up UI benefits,...
I was invited to write two opinion pieces about Initiative 2124 for The Seattle Times and The Spokesman-Review. Both were published this past weekend to offer readers different perspectives on a Nov. 5 ballot measure that would make a payroll tax and participation in the WA Cares program optional. These guest columns highlight different things about the trouble with WA Cares and the value of I-2124, so if you are interested in the initiative and how it could impact workers, read them both here...