A statewide initiative to put more healthy, climate-friendly grains on people鈥檚 plates has received a $19 million boost, which will sustain every step in building a network from the field to the fork.

The initiative, a public-private partnership led by Washington State University with support from the 91探花, received a $10 million BioInnovation Grant from the and matching funds from several other organizations, including more than $3 million from the Washington Grain Commission.

It targets a global health problem: the lack of whole grains in people鈥檚 diets, which contributes to widespread health problems.

The funding will allow WSU researchers to continue developing new crop varieties for farmers. It will fuel efforts to bring more whole grains to the public, including into school lunchrooms and will expand Washington state鈥檚 commercial infrastructure for storing, transporting, milling and marketing whole grains. The funding will also support the establishment of a commercial kitchen at the 91探花to help entrepreneurs bring whole-grain foods to market.

鈥淭his work is about making sure that nutritious grains reach the people who need them,鈥� said , a professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the UW. 鈥淏y understanding the policies, systems, and human decisions that shape food production and the supply chain for school meals, we can help bridge the gap between innovation and impact.鈥�

Two teams of 91探花researchers will contribute to this effort.听

, professor of industrial & systems engineering and of mechanical engineering at the UW, will help lead development of ready-to-eat meals and will support private organizations using 91探花facilities to produce sample meals for school breakfast and lunch.听

The 鲍奥鈥檚 implementation science team, which includes Otten, assistant professor of environmental and occupational health sciences , and assistant professor of epidemiology , will examine how innovations in grain breeding and food product development can be successfully adopted in school settings. They will study what policy, budgetary, and social factors help ensure that new whole grain and legume varieties are embraced across the supply chain and, ultimately, by school-aged children who rely on them for the nutrition they need to grow and thrive.

This team will also lead study-away programs, where students can learn about new whole grains and legumes in both urban and rural areas of Washington state. Curriculum from these five-week summer programs will be made publicly available.听

鈥淭he timing of the grant is perfect,鈥� said , a WSU professor of international seed and cropping systems and director of the WSU Breadlab, who will lead the grant work. 鈥淲e鈥檙e right at the stage where we鈥檝e got a critical mass of cross-disciplinary research, encompassing a range of agricultural, food and health sciences. Now we can start commercializing, getting these crop varieties to farmers, getting whole grains on our plates and into schools.鈥�

The grant funding will be matched by contributions from the Washington Grain Commission, the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council, the American Heart Association, The Land Institute, and food and technology companies.

鈥淭his is truly a historic investment for Washington farmers,鈥� said Casey Chumrau, CEO of the Washington Grain Commission.

Adapted from . For more information or to reach the project team, contact Alden Woods at acwoods@uw.edu or WSU鈥檚 Shawn Vestal at shawn.vestal@wsu.edu.

Two 91探花 experts in climate change and health are lead authors of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The new report titled , published Monday morning, details in over three thousand pages a 鈥渄ire warning鈥� about the consequences of inaction on reducing the emissions that are causing our planet to warm and on implementing interventions to prepare for and effectively manage the dangerous impacts of climate change already occurring.

鈥淭his report is a dire warning about the consequences of inaction,鈥� said Hoesung Lee, chair of the IPCC, in a . 鈥淚t shows that climate change is a grave and mounting threat to our wellbeing and a healthy planet. Our actions today will shape how people adapt and nature responds to increasing climate risks.鈥�

鲍奥鈥檚 , professor of global health and environmental and occupational health sciences in the School of Public Health, and Dr. , professor of emergency medicine at 91探花School of Medicine and of environmental and occupational health sciences and of global health in the School of Public Health, are lead authors on . Ebi is also a contributing author on the IPCC鈥檚 .

Below, the 91探花professors discuss these threats and the critical necessity of addressing them.

Professor Ebi鈥檚 comments:

People are suffering and dying right now from climate change, with the risks projected to increase without urgent and immediate investments in health systems to protect and promote population health. The people and nature we care about in our lives are being affected, with more severe impacts occurring sooner than projected just a few years ago.

The magnitude and pattern of future climate change impacts will depend on choices made in other sectors, such as urbanization plans, efforts to manage growing wildfire risks, and modifications to water systems to account for changing rainfall patterns, and on significant and urgent investments in our health systems.

There鈥檚 a long list of effective adaption options that can increase the resilience of our health systems and our health care infrastructure, as well as strengthen the capacity of communities to be better prepared to manage changing weather patterns. The major constraint for health is the insignificant investment in this area; catch-up investments are needed that at least keep pace with climate change.

Nearly all mitigation options have benefits for health. Benefits for our health arise from reducing exposure to harmful air pollutants from emissions from point sources like coal-fired power plants, reducing transportation that relies on internal combustion engines and increasing walking and biking, and changing dietary patterns to eat healthier diets.

The economic value of avoided hospitalizations and avoided premature deaths is of the same order of magnitude if not larger than the cost of implementing these mitigation policies. These policies will benefit the health of our families, friends and colleagues, with lower healthcare costs.

We can鈥檛 stop the next heat wave, but people don鈥檛 need to die. Not facing up to the risks just puts us in a much worse situation.

The future is in our hands. We may not be able to prevent flooding events or heat waves, but we can be prepared. The choices we make going forward will determine all of our futures.

Dr. Hess鈥� comments:

The chapter on health, well-being and the changing structure of communities is unprecedented in the breadth and depth of its assessment. And its findings are clear: Climate change is already posing significant and widespread burdens on health, through warming temperatures, extreme heat events, changing precipitation patterns and relative humidity, more frequent and severe storms, and wildfires.

More than half of the disease burden in the world is climate sensitive, and a wide range of diseases, from vector-borne and zoonotic infections, water- and food-borne diseases, injuries and a host of chronic noncommunicable diseases, are all affected.

The report highlights the clear risks to mental health, as well.

Estimates of future risks to health depend heavily on future greenhouse gas emissions, trends in socioeconomic development, rates of population increase, and patterns of aging and urbanization. Under high emissions scenarios, risks associated with heat, undernutrition, diarrheal diseases, and select vector-borne diseases will increase.

The report clearly highlights an overarching need for coordinated climate change adaptation across all sectors, including health, with emphasis on addressing social inequities and other underlying factors that drive vulnerability to climate change impacts.

In the health sector, this means investing in the climate resilience of health systems, increasing universal access to basic health care, developing heat action plans and other early warning systems, supporting efforts to reduce heat risk on the population level, enhancing surveillance for climate-sensitive conditions, controlling disease vectors and developing vaccines for vector-borne diseases, and reducing emissions from health care delivery.

Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions yield substantial health dividends that, in most cases, pay for the mitigation efforts themselves.

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Ebi is the founding director and Hess is the director of the 鲍奥鈥檚 . Contributing 91探花authors for Chapter 7 of the IPCC report are , associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences, and , assistant teaching professor of environmental and occupational health sciences, in the 91探花School of Public Health. Also,听, associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences in the 91探花School of Public Health, was a contributing author to of the full report.

Washington residents continue to experience a dramatically higher level of food insecurity 鈥� from 10% before the COVID-19 pandemic to 27%, according to theresearch on food insecurity and food assistance in the state.

The study team also found that need for food assistance has continued to rise. Before COVID-19, about 29% of respondents reported using food assistance. In wave 1 of the survey, food assistance use increased to 33% of respondents; by wave 2, food assistance use was reported by 42% of the sample.

91探花researchers say those numbers mean some people in Washington are going hungry and many more are not getting a steady diet of healthy food or the kinds of food their families are used to making for themselves.

鈥淎gencies are doing what they can, but these are exceptionally difficult times for marginalized and economically insecure families,鈥� said听, one of the leaders of the survey team, 91探花food systems director and associate professor of nutritional sciences in the 91探花School of Public Health. “The pandemic continues to worsen preexisting inequalities and lay bare shortcomings of our social and economic structure. While the current level of food insecurity is alarming to see, so was seeing more than 1 in 10 Washingtonians food insecure before the start of COVID-19.鈥�

The latest survey results are the second wave in a series of surveys being conducted by 91探花and WSU. The first Washington State Food Security Survey (WAFOOD) ran from June 18 to July 31 in 2020, receiving 2,616 responses from 38 of 39 counties. The second survey ran from Dec. 4 to Jan. 31, receiving 3,511 responses from 38 of 39 counties.

A third wave of the WAFOOD survey is . The survey takes approximately 15 minutes to complete and asks questions about your health, food access and economic needs.

鈥淭his suggests that the economic impacts of the pandemic are continuing to compound and, similar to prior recessions, there is likely to be a delay in improved food security even after the economy stabilizes,鈥� Otten said. 鈥淥ur results are telling an important and still unfolding story of how our social safety nets, which were already struggling to meet need pre-COVID, are now faced with even greater need.鈥�

You can read the full report of the survey .

鈥淭he continuation of the WAFOOD survey series is essential to meeting immediate need as best as we can, as well as for advocating for equitable change that was obviously, perhaps now more than ever, needed. There continue to be disparities in food insecurity and need among families with children, low-income households and BIPOC households,鈥� Otten said.

The 91探花team included School of Public Health faculty and staff听,听,听,听,听,听听and听, all affiliated with the 91探花Center for Public Health Nutrition. Washington State University was represented by听, director of the Food Systems Program, and Tacoma Community College was represented by听, professor of health, business and profession services.听This project has been supported by the 91探花Population Heath Initiative and School of Public Health, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and other private philanthropy.

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For more information, contact Jennifer Otten at jotten@uw.edu.

Understanding Washington residents鈥� access to food and their economic well-being 鈥� or lack of it 鈥� during the COVID-19 pandemic is vital for state and community partners to identify those needs and allocate resources effectively.

To help accomplish this goal, the 91探花, Washington State University and Tacoma Community College, along with input from partners in local, county and state governments 鈥� such as the Washington State Department of Health and the Washington State Department of Agriculture 鈥� are conducting a series of .

The first wave of this series of surveys was conducted in June and July, and 2,621 Washington residents from 38 of 39 counties responded. Now researchers are recruiting participants in the survey鈥檚 second wave.

鈥淭he first survey found that food insecurity was high among state residents, and that the majority of food insecure households had children. We also found disparities in the burden of food insecurity by income, race, ethnicity and educational attainment,鈥� said听, one of the leaders of the survey team and a 91探花associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the School of Public Health.

Specifically, the first wave of the found:

• Food insecurity was high, alarmingly so, in the summer following the state shutdown, affecting an estimated 30% of households, exacerbating pre-existing social inequities.
• Highest rates of food insecurity 鈥� 58% 鈥� were observed among households below the poverty line.
• Households having members with some or no college education were also disproportionately impacted with 44% of respondents experiencing food insecurity.
• 42% of respondents of color experienced food insecurity.
• About 40% of all survey participants reported that their diet got worse.
• Participants reported being concerned about safety in supermarkets and grocery stores, rising food costs, access and transportation.
• Post Covid-19 diets had more eggs, rice, beans, pasta and peanut butter but less meat, seafood and milk and dairy.
• Store bought cakes and cookies decreased but there was a sharp increase in cooking at home.

鈥淥ur findings听also helped to characterize which and how food assistance programs were working for Washington residents as well as where additional changes might be needed to better support their food needs. Public agencies and anti-hunger networks held the survey up as useful in informing their programs and distribution and outreach needs,鈥� Otten said.

Complete results of the first survey are available .

The second wave of the currently is underway and runs until mid-January.

Survey questions ask about access to food and food assistance, employment conditions and financial needs, as well as diet quality and health. The survey takes about 15 minutes or less to complete and is open to all Washington State residents age 18 years or older.

鈥淲ave 2 will monitor the continuing impact of the pandemic on economic- and food-related wellbeing eight months after the initial lockdown. We hope to continue to add more waves of data collection to monitor the ongoing situation,鈥� Otten said. 鈥淭he data collected will be used by legislators, public agencies and anti-hunger networks to allocate听resources, provide support and promote the recovery of Washington residents.鈥�

The 91探花team included School of Public Health faculty and staff: , , ;听,听,听听and听, all affiliated with the 91探花Center for Public Health Nutrition. Washington State University was represented by , director of the Food Systems Program, and Tacoma Community College by听, professor of health, business and profession services.听This project is supported by a charitable donation from the Ballmer Group.

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For more information, contact Otten at jotten@uw.edu.

The , which went live June 18 and runs through July 31, is open to all Washington state residents aged 18 or over. It was created by researchers at the 91探花, Washington State University and Tacoma Community College, along with input from partners in local, county and state governments 鈥� such as the Washington State Department of Health and the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

鈥淲e know from increased demand at food banks and in food assistance programs that there has been a steep increase in food insecurity, but we don鈥檛 know the details. How are needs changing?鈥� said , one of the leaders of the survey team and a 91探花associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences. 鈥淚n addition, due to physical distancing and changes in shopping patterns and food availability, it鈥檚 clear that some are also likely experiencing radical dietary shifts.鈥�

The survey, which takes about 20 minutes to complete, asks participants questions about their access to food and levels of economic security and about dietary shifts. It does not ask participants for identifiable information, such as names or protected health information.

鈥淭he information gathered by this survey will help state and community partners understand what people are experiencing and help with resource allocation for Washington state residents,鈥� said Otten. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very important we hear from everyone about what has changed, what has stayed the same, and what would help.鈥�

Food insecurity generally encompasses all the factors that keep people from accessing sufficient food and nutrition, including economic, social and employment factors 鈥� as well as government and community-assistance factors and issues related to food distribution and infrastructure. National data indicate since the coronavirus pandemic began.

The new survey is intended provide an in-depth look at both food and economic security in Washington state 鈥� one of the first states to enact social distancing measures, including limiting crowd sizes and closing certain businesses and venues.

鈥淭he goals of this survey are to understand how Washington residents are coping with disruptions in economic activity, as well as food distribution and access,鈥� said , another survey team leader and a 91探花professor of epidemiology.

The team is particularly interested in responses from low-income households and those households that are underserved by food assistance programs. They plan to analyze survey responses on both a statewide level, as well as local and regional levels using participant-provided ZIP codes.

Researchers will share the information gathered by the survey with government and community partners to help identify needs related to food security and allocate resources accordingly.

The survey is available in both English and Spanish here:

Participants also have the option of entering drawings for $50 grocery store gift cards.

Additional 91探花team members include , assistant professor of environmental and occupational health sciences; and , research coordinators with the 91探花Nutritional Sciences Program; doctoral student ; and undergraduate student . Survey team leaders also include Laura Lewis, an associate professor of community and economic development at WSU and director of the Food Systems Program, as well as , professor of health, business and professional services at Tacoma Community College. 91探花funding is provided by the university鈥檚 Population Health Initiative, the Department of Epidemiology and the School of Public Health.

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For more information, contact Otten at jotten@uw.edu and Drewnowski at adamdrew@uw.edu.

In the decade-long absence of federal action, many states, counties and cities have increased minimum wages to help improve the lives of workers. While political debate over these efforts has long been contentious, scientific research on the health effects of raising the minimum wage is relatively new.

Some have found higher minimum wages associated with positive health outcomes, with little evidence that minimum wages harm health. However, a new study by researchers at the 91探花 found that increases in minimum wages primarily had no effect on health overall. However, they did find a mix of negative and positive effects associated with the health of certain groups of working-age people.

The 91探花study, in the American Journal of Epidemiology, looked at more than 131,000 adults who provided information to the federal between 2008 and 2015. The subjects were 25 to 64 years old and were either employed or unemployed but looking for work.

鈥淲e found that an increase in minimum wage really didn鈥檛 have a huge impact on health overall, which surprised us,鈥� said lead author , a doctoral student in epidemiology in the 91探花School of Public Health. 鈥淲e did see, when we looked at subgroups, some mixed health effects there, however.鈥�

For example, the researchers found that a wage increase was associated with an increased likelihood of obesity and elevated body mass index in working-age people of color. They also found that higher minimum wages were associated with a lower likelihood of hypertension among working-age men but higher likelihood of hypertension in working-age women.

鈥淭hese mixed results shine a spotlight on segments of the population that need to be studied in relation to rising minimum wages in order to learn how best to achieve the goal of reducing inequality with adjustments to the minimum wage,鈥� said co-author , an associate professor in the 91探花Evans School of Public Policy & Governance.

The researchers looked at several health outcomes: obesity, body mass index, hypertension, diabetes, fair or poor general health and serious psychological distress. And, to make sure they were seeing results tied to minimum wages and not other factors, they compared the health outcomes of working-age people with less formal education 鈥� who are most likely to receive the minimum wage 鈥� to health outcomes of those with more formal education. If a health outcome appeared in both groups, the researchers could assume that it wasn鈥檛 caused by changes to the minimum wage.

According to the researchers, these types of analyses and comparisons set their study apart from previous research on this topic. This gives the team confidence in its main finding听鈥� no overall effect on the health of working-age people听鈥� even though that result contradicts previously published studies. In addition, the 91探花study provides detailed data on the effects of minimum wage increases on subgroups of workers based on gender, race and age.

The team points out in the study that an association between higher minimum wage and higher rates of obesity for a specific subgroup of working-age people may reflect differences in how minimum-wage policies affect certain demographics of workers, especially those more likely to have low- or minimum-wage jobs.

The researchers did not explore in this study the obesity or hypertension differences they uncovered, but believe that these results point to potential consequences of minimum-wage policy that should be the focus of future research.

鈥淲hen we are looking at a minimum-wage policy, or any policy for that matter, we should be looking at the effect overall, but we should also consider how it is affecting different groups. And, if there is evidence that minimum wage or any policy is affecting groups differently, that鈥檚 something to hone in on for further investigation,鈥� said Buszkiewicz, who is expanding his research into the minimum wage to include its effects over time and by gender and race.

The authors also point out that this research could help inform policymakers when it comes to establishing wage policy.

鈥淐ities and counties are increasing minimum wages with very good intentions, which is to benefit lower-earning workers and reduce inequality, and yet we still need more research evidence on the effects of the minimum wage on health.鈥� Hill said. 鈥淚n particular, we need to understand how it affects different types of workers differently.鈥�

Co-author on the study is , an associate professor in the 91探花Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and the 91探花Nutritional Sciences Program. This research was funded by Arnold Ventures and the National Institutes of Health.

Grant: R24 HD042828.

Learn more about the听鲍奥鈥檚听Population Health Initiative:听a 25-year, interdisciplinary effort to bring understanding and solutions to the biggest challenges facing communities.

The first paper, “,” was published in late December in a special issue of Social Work and Society International Online Journal.

The study found that more than half of Seattle child care businesses were affected by increased labor costs as the policy increased to $13 per hour, and that the majority will be impacted as the policy increases to $15 per hour between 2019 and 2021.

The most common strategic response reported by the businesses has been to raise prices or fees of child tuition and to reduce hours of or number of staff. Center directors reported that employee wages and benefits comprise the majority of business expenses and that child tuition was the primary source of business income. Thus, most businesses reported they would need a mix of strategies to accommodate increased labor costs to ensure that added expenses were not falling entirely onto the families they serve.

In this paper, researchers used quantitative and qualitative data to capture how the policy was affecting wages in the industry and how child care businesses were responding to the policy implementation. Using state payroll data from about 200 child care businesses, the study examined multiple factors including the number of staff per business, staff wages and business payrolls beginning in 2014 and into 2016. Researchers also surveyed 41 business directors at three different times during the rollout of the minimum wage policy. Finally, researchers conducted open-ended, in-depth interviews with 15 child care directors.

鈥淭his study illustrates how singular policies can affect more than just payroll and can shape organizational structure and service delivery,鈥� said lead author , an associate professor in the School of Public Health.

The second paper, “,” was published in early January in a special issue of the online International Journal of Environmental and Public Health.

In this paper, researchers examined the effect of Seattle鈥檚 minimum wage ordinance on local area supermarket food prices over time and as wages phased in to $15 per hour.

Overall, the authors found no significant evidence of price increases associated with the minimum wage ordinance. The paper also sought to evaluate the potential for differential price changes that might be related to diet quality, including analyses by food group, level of food processing, and nutrient quality. The authors found no evidence of significant price increases in any of the diet quality measures examined that could be attributed to the minimum wage ordinance.

鈥淭his is really great news for low-wage earning Seattle shoppers,鈥� said James Buszkiewicz, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Epidemiology and lead author on the study. 鈥淭ypically null findings do not get that much attention, but in this case, if local food prices remain steady while earnings increase for low and minimum wage workers, then that could mean increased purchasing power for things like fresh fruit and vegetables for the consumers that need it most.鈥�

Buszkiewicz said that the study findings may not be generalizable to all cities and states experiencing minimum wage increases given Seattle鈥檚 unique economic circumstances, however, he hopes that this study will serve as a model for other investigators to examine potential price hikes in their state or area.

The investigators collected prices for 106 food items from six large supermarket chain stores affected by the ordinance in Seattle and in six of the same-chain stores in King County and unaffected by the ordinance. The price check occurred at four time points: one month pre- (March 2015), one month post- (May 2015), one year post- (May 2016), and two years post- (May 2017) ordinance implementation.

Funding for the child care study came from , the City of Seattle and a Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grant to the Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology at the UW.

Other co-authors for the child care study include Katherine Getts of the 91探花School of Public Health; Heather D. Hill and Scott W. Allard from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance; Jennifer Romich from the 91探花School of Social Work; Ekaterina Jardim, who was a postdoctoral researcher at the 91探花and now works for Amazon; and Anne Althauser, who worked at the 91探花Evans School of Public Policy and Governance and now works for the 91探花Office of Planning & Budgeting.

Funding for the food prices study came from Arnold Ventures and the City of Seattle. Other co-authors for the food prices study include Anju Aggarwal and Adam Drewnowski of the 91探花School of Public Health; Mark Long from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance; and Catherine House, who was a graduate student in the 91探花Nutritional Sciences Program.

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For more information about the child care study, contact Otten at jotten@uw.edu.

For more information about the supermarket food prices study, contact Buszkiewicz at buszkiew@uw.edu.

The lot of Seattle’s lowest-paid workers improved following the city’s minimum wage increase to $11 in 2015, but that was more due to the robust regional economy than the wage hike itself, according to a research team at the 91探花’s .

Although the ordinance appears to have boosted wages for the city’s lowest-paid workers, the benefits of the increase may have been partly offset by fewer hours worked per person and slightly less overall employment, the research team found. Estimated income gains for the average worker were modest 鈥� on the order of a few dollars a week 鈥� and sensitive to methodological choices.

The City of Seattle passed its in June of 2014, and that December commissioned the 91探花team to conduct a five-year study of the law’s impacts. The ongoing research is led by professors and with , associate professor in the 91探花, and other co-authors from the Evans School, the and the Washington Employment Security Department.

The team presented its in an update to the council this morning (July 25).

The ordinance took effect April 1, 2015, raising the minimum hourly wage from $9.47 to $11. Under the law, businesses with fewer than 500 employees are scheduled to reach the $15 an hour wage in 2021. Employers with 500 or more employees, either in Seattle or nationally, will reach that level in three years, or 2017.

The challenge of this report, Vigdor said, was to isolate the effects of the wage increase ordinance from all other concurrent economic factors, chiefly the surging regional economy. This enables the researchers to compare Seattle to what it might look like today had the minimum wage ordinance never happened 鈥� knowing, too, that the strong economy was slowly pushing wages up regardless of the ordinance.

For their research, the team used employment, hours and earnings records from the Washington Employment Security Division going back to 2005 to create a model of how the local labor market works. They also viewed data on other nearby regions that did not increase their minimum wage, to better understand how rising property values, expanding tech employment and even the weather might have influenced what the team observed in the city itself.

The research sought to answer two questions: What has happened to Seattle’s labor market since passage of the minimum wage ordinance? And more crucially, what has been the effect of that ordinance on the labor market?

The first question involves simple comparisons of yesterday with today. But, Vigor said, “To imagine what a higher minimum wage might accomplish in a region not enjoying a significant economic boom, or what might happen in Seattle next year if the boom should wear off, the second question is the only one that matters.”

The researchers found that:

• Seattle’s lowest-paid workers saw larger-than-usual paychecks in late 2015, but at most, only 25 percent of the observed income gains 鈥� a few dollars a week 鈥� can be attributed to the higher wage.

• Businesses relying heavily on low-wage staff showed signs of cutting back, though they too benefited from the strong economy. They added jobs at about the same rate as businesses outside the city, but employees’ working hours in the city lagged by an average of about one hour per employee per week.

• Even amid a relative boom, Seattle’s lowest-wage earners show signs of “lagging behind” a control group drawn from other parts of the state. The employment rate was down about 1 percentage point for workers who earned less than $11 an hour in mid-2014; their average hours declined, and the proportion switching from jobs in the city to elsewhere ticked upward by 2 to 3 percent.

“Our report indicates that Seattle’s track record after increasing the minimum wage is neither as negative as some had feared nor as positive as some had hoped,” Vigdor said. “While the vibrant local economy is boosting employment and incomes up and down the economic ladder, the positive effects of a higher minimum wage are being at least partly offset by cutbacks in hours.”

The researchers cautioned, however, that their findings are statistical averages that could mask distinctions among different types of workers. The findings address only the short-run impact of Seattle’s wage hike to $11 an hour and don’t reflect the full range of experiences for thousands of individual workers in the Seattle economy.

Next, the research team plans to incorporate more detailed information about workers by linking employment records to other state databases. This will provide the capacity to determine, for instance, whether the workers benefiting most from higher minimum wages are more likely to be living in poverty.

Other coming work will include:

• Extending the analysis to Seattle’s second wage increase, in April 2016, when the ordinance began distinguishing between businesses of different sizes
• Collecting additional survey information from Seattle businesses and conducting more interviews with a sample of workers tracked since early 2015.

The team expects to make its next report to the city in September; that report will focus on how the minimum wage hike has impacted Seattle nonprofit organizations.

91探花co-investigators on the ongoing study are of the 鲍奥鈥檚 and , and of the Evans School. Other co-investigators are Scott Bailey and Anneliese Vance-Sherman of the state employment security department.

The research was funded in part by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grant to the 鲍奥鈥檚 . Funding also was provided by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation and the City of Seattle.

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For more information, contact the research team at mwage@uw.edu or J. Paul Blake, Evans School director of media and external relations, at 206-543-3958 or jpblake@uw.edu.

Grant # R24 HD042828

But a year after the law’s April 2015 implementation, the study indicates such increases don’t seem to be happening.

The interdisciplinary team, centered in the surveyed employers and workers and scanned area commodity and service prices. The team’s report found “little or no evidence” of price increases in Seattle relative to other areas, its report states.

The City of Seattle’s was adopted in June of 2014, and began taking effect on April 1, 2015. Under the law, businesses with fewer than 500 employees will reach the $15 an hour wage in seven years, or 2021. Employers with 500 or more employees (either in Seattle or nationally) will reach that level in three years.

When approving the ordinance, the Seattle City Council also commissioned a thorough study of the law’s impacts, and sealed a contract with the 91探花in December 2014. The study is led by Evans School professors and with , associate professor in the 91探花, and other co-authors from the Evans School and the . Two economists from the Washington Employment Security Department are also on the team.

The researchers released April 18 in a presentation to the Seattle City Council.

The study, conducted between January and May 2015, surveyed 567 randomly selected Seattle employers as well as 55 workers, asking their awareness of and feelings about its expected and actual effects, to establish a baseline for that information.

Responses indicate that nearly all employers knew about the new law, though many were uncertain about its implementation. Many employers expressed hope the higher wages will improve both worker morale and boost job applications, though they also doubt it will improve individual employee productivity among minimum wage workers.

Sixty-two percent of employers said they expected to raise prices of goods and services to accommodate the higher wages brought by the law. Ten percent of the employers believed incorrectly that the ordinance would force their business to move to a $15 wage immediately upon implementation.

But in an analysis of area prices over time, done through a combination of “web scraping” and in-person visits to grocery stores, restaurants and other retail locations, such price increases were not in evidence.

“Our preliminary analysis of grocery, retail and rent prices has found little or no evidence of price increases in Seattle relative to the surrounding area,” the team concluded.

Workers, for their part 鈥� many of whom reported struggling to make ends meet despite community and government assistance 鈥� responded to the survey wondering doubtfully if the wage increases would truly improve their financial situation. Most knew about the law but many were uncertain of details, the study found.

“Today’s report documents both the hopes and fears that workers and business managers expressed as Seattle began its initiative to raise the minimum wage,” said Vigdor. “Business owners are hopeful that small changes to their operation 鈥� such as small price increases 鈥� will keep them in the black.

“Workers are hopeful about the promise of greater income, but harbor few illusions about the potential for price increases, or reductions in government benefits, to eat away at these gains.”

The team’s subsequent study on the Seattle minimum wage law will include:

• A second round of worker interviews this spring to learn more about its effects on work and family life, and more in spring of 2017 if funding allows.
• Analysis this spring of employment security data on employment, hours, and earnings for a report to be released this summer
• Another full survey of employers and workers in 2017.
• A brief follow-up survey of employers this summer to depict changes over time.
• Continued study of prices, expanding to the areas outside Seattle.
• A study this fall on the impact of the ordinance on Seattle nonprofits, through surveys and interviews.

“From its inception, this study has sought to do more than track employment figures,” Vigdor said. “Our team hopes to develop a full understanding of how businesses and nonprofits change their practices to accommodate higher wages, and of whether a higher minimum wage meaningfully transforms lives. Today’s report showcases that broader approach.”

Vigdor and Long’s co-investigators on the Seattle Minimum Wage Study are of the UW’s and , and of the Evans School. Other co-investigators are Scott Bailey and Anneliese Vance-Sherman of the state employment security department.

The research was funded in part by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grant to the UW’s . Funding also was provided by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation and the City of Seattle.

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For more information, contact the research team at mwage@uw.edu or J. Paul Blake, Evans School director of media and external relations, at 206-543-3958 or jpblake@uw.edu.

Grant # R24 HD042828

Faculty from the 91探花’s schools of public affairs, public health and social work are teaming up for , a five-year research project to learn that and more.

An passed by the Seattle City Council in June 2014 mandates a citywide minimum wage increase to $11 an hour on April 1 that will grow to $15 an hour by the year 2022. The council also resolved to evaluate the impact of that ordinance and is contracting with 91探花researchers and others for that work.

, professor in the , will be principal investigator on the project along with , also of the Evans School, and of the .

91探花co-investigators are , and of the Evans School and of the . Other co-investigators are Scott Bailey and Anneliese Vance-Sherman of the Washington Employment Security Department.

“Our goal is to make this a data-driven conversation about what is the good that is being done, what is the harm that is being done, and are we happy with that tradeoff,” Vigdor in a recent interview.

The study will be a multifaceted evaluation of the wage ordinance’s effects on workers, employers and the local economy. Its several components will include an employer survey and in-depth study of the effect on families as well as on regional pricing and administrative and census data.

The researchers listed fundamental questions about the higher minimum wage to be investigated in the research:

• What is its impact on workers, their families, employers and the community?
• Does it impact employment and earnings among low-wage workers?
• Does it affect overall employment, business longevity or the mix of firms that do business in Seattle?
• How does it affect consumer prices?
• Does it improve quality of life measures, including health, nutrition and daily family life?
• Does it affect public assistance program eligibility and benefits received?
• Do nonprofit service organizations respond to higher wages by cutting back on services to vulnerable families?
• How do low-income families and employers experience the implementation of the policy and how do they perceive its benefits and costs?
• How do businesses adapt to higher labor costs?

The project will build on by Plotnick, Long and , also of the Evans School, on who would be affected by the wage increase. That was released in March 2014, prior to the passage of the ordinance.

The researchers will provide the city of Seattle regular updates on their study as the wage increases are implemented.

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For general inquiries about the Seattle Minimum Wage Study, write mwage@uw.edu. Principal investigator Vigdor is at 206-616-4436 or jvigdor@uw.edu; Long at 206-543-3787 or marklong@uw.edu; Romich at romich@uw.edu or 206-616-6121.