Equality State Policy Center's Projects

Wyoming Working Families

The State of Working Wyoming is the ESPC’s latest project in its Wyoming Working Families program. The ESPC was the lead advocate for legislative authorization of a study on gender wage gap, A Study of the Disparity in Wages and Benefits Between Men and Women in Wyoming.The ESPC also participated in development of The Self-Sufficiency Standard for Wyoming, which shows the wages needed to cover basic expenses for families of various configurations (e.g., one parent with a preschooler and a school-age child).

We have advocated for increasing the minimum wage for tipped employees (currently $2.30/hour in Wyoming) and repeal of the law that allows employers to retain mandatory gratuities (tips) for large groups instead of passing them along to the servers. We worked with the Wyoming Children’s Action Alliance for passage of the Quality Child Care program and with several groups for expansion of the KidCare CHIP program (that provides subsidized health insurance coverage for children in working families) to include parents.

We continue to track trends affecting health insurance. On Oct. 10, 2008, we joined the Economic Policy Institute in an analysis of the decline in availability of employer-provided health insurance. Read the ESPC’s release here and the EPI’s release here.

 

The VOTE Project

The ESPC is a partner in the VOTE Project, a regional effort under the auspices of Western States Center, to educate and mobilize voters and potential voters. VOTE stands for Voter Organizing, Training and Empowerment Project. 


How much is enough? Good question!

In a June op-ed, the Equality State Policy Center called for bringing severance tax rates into state budget discussions wrongly focused almost exclusively on cutting programs. The idea got wide play in the media and spurred industry interests to offer their own contrary positions.

Both the Wyoming Business Alliance and the Wyoming Mining Association attacked the idea that Wyoming deserves a greater share of the wealth generated from its minerals.

Marion Loomis of the Mining Association asked “How much is enough?”

We think that’s a good question. The answer is not comforting: Wyoming lawmakers and the public do not know how much is enough if we want the Permanent Mineral Trust Fund to sustain essential state programs when mineral revenues decline.

It’s a great debate. You can read our latest op-ed here. Read the June op-ed that launched this discussion here.

 

2009 Wyoming Legislature - A Nuts & Bolts Session

How does the Wyoming Legislature affect you?

Its decisions affect how many children are in your child’s classroom, the quality of the roads you drive on, the availability of numerous programs and services in your community, and how far the government reaches into your personal life.

In our 2006 report on the Legislature, we noted that surprisingly few legislators were asking about, much less articulating, what our state should be like a generation hence. The same can be said about the 2009 session. In fact, legislative leaders termed it a “nuts and bolts session” aimed at maintaining the state’s economic base, rather than defining what the state will be like in 10 or 20 years. Read more here. . .

 

 

Attorney Mark Aronowitz

Mark Aronowitz
Lawyers and Advocates for Wyoming

Injured workers win improved benefits.

In our view, the biggest accomplishment of the recent General Session of the Wyoming Legislature was passage of the workers’ compensation reform bill (HB 54), making numerous changes to a system that was rife with injustice for workers injured on the job, particularly those with permanent partial or total disability.

Richard Johnson with Cheyenne attorney George Santini

Cheyenne attorney George Santini, right, has represented Richard Johnson, a worker injured more than 20 years ago. Johnson testified before the Senate Labor Committee to encourage adoption of a cost of living adjustment to permanent disability benefits.

The new law increases death and permanent impairment benefits, including benefits for surviving children; provides a minimum and extends the duration of temporary total disability benefits; provides an annual cost of living adjustment to permanent total disability benefits; extends the maximum duration of vocational rehabilitation benefits; extends the period over which death benefits are paid; limits the time for the Workers’ Compensation Division to recover overpayments; requires the state to pay a fair share of the costs of litigation when covered workers recover damages from third parties; and requires the division to reconsider claims if an injured worker’s failure to meet a procedural deadline is the fault of the worker’s attorney. The bill also appropriates $150,000 to the Office of Administrative Hearings to determine how to modernize office operations and it authorizes hiring one additional hearing officer.

Our thanks to all the injured workers, union leaders, and members of the Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association who worked so hard to get this done. We need to single out work by Kim Floyd of the AFL-CIO and Marcia Shanor, George Santini, and Mark Aronowitz of the WTLA, but this truly was a cooperative effort by many people.

For more information, contact Dan Neal.

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