Washington the best state for working families in pandemic, report says. Here’s why

A lot of workers have been struggling during the coronavirus pandemic across the U.S., but some states have offered them more help than others, according to a study by OXFAM.

Researchers ranked all 50 states, Washington, DC and Puerto Rico using three policy metrics to determine which areas were the best and worst to work in during the COVID-19 pandemic, the nonprofit said. The best state for workers was Washington state, according to the report.

OXFAM based the rankings on each state’s performance in the policy areas of worker protections, health care and unemployment, the report said. Washington scored second in worker protections, 10th in healthcare and first in unemployment.

Worker protections policies were rated based on a state’s policy on “underlying workplace protections,” “COVID-19 era workplace protections” and “community-level protections,” the report said.

Health care policies were evaluated by a state’s “health care expansions” and “transparent case reporting.” Unemployment policy ratings depended on a state’s “COVID-19-era unemployment supports,” “underlying unemployment supports,” and “COVID-19-era housing and food assistance,” according to the report.

While Washington was able to check most of the boxes of criteria, it lacks worker protections against retaliation, “childcare for essential workers,” “waived cost sharing for COVID-19 treatment,” “expanded eligibility for undocumented workers,” and “rent grace period[s],” according to OXFAM.

Researchers used policy data based on laws that were in effect between Feb. 15 and July 1, the report said.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee tweeted out the report, saying, “In our state, we believe you can recover a strong economy, without sacrificing the health and safety of workers.”

This story was originally published September 2, 2020 at 4:12 PM with the headline "Washington the best state for working families in pandemic, report says. Here’s why."