The rules of power are often rigged in favor of monopolies and winner-take-all systems. On Citizen University TV, host Eric Liu explores ways citizens can overcome a system stacked against them. He calls this strategy “re-rigging the rules.” But what…
Adopting a budget will be the main task of Washington’s legislature in 2015. The state’s elected leaders face a big challenge. Income inequality is constricting family budgets and the whole economy, here in Washington and nationwide. Washington also has an…
It’s simple math: More money for workers means a stronger economy – period. What happens when we support the lowest-paid workers and families among us? Let us count the ways. With increased pay, families are more able to put food on…
Many economists and policy-makers struggle to explain growing inequality and the erosion of the middle class. Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman has a simple explanation, “…corporations use their growing monopoly power to raise prices without passing the gains on to…
There is a political phenomenon that while we hate Congress (approval rating currently at 9 percent), we like, respect, and almost always re-elect the local Congressperson we know. The same phenomenon occurs when we think about wealth. Most of us…
The median CEO pay package hit $10.5 million last year, according to the Associated Press, cracking eight figures for the first time since the wire service began calculating the statistic. The median compensation number rose by 8.8 percent from 2012…
Washington state has seen enormous growth in low-wage industries, such as food service and accommodations. Although leisure and hospitality sectors have followed business cycle trends, they have also been outpacing the growth of nonfarm jobs and at an increasing rate.…
President Obama, in his most recent State of the Union address, predicted that fighting inequality would be the “defining project of our generation.” The President’s forecast reflects a growing concern among most Americans about rising economic inequality. Conversations about inequality often…
A comprehensive report by the Black Women’s Roundtable details the multitude of disparities faced by black women living, working and raising families in the United States. The report assessed conditions of black women in areas of health, education, labor force…
There’s a lot being talked about when it comes to income inequality, from the national work of Robert Reich’s Inequality for All to local efforts to pass a $15 minimum wage. Here in Washington, elected leaders, business owners, workers and…
