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Home / Washington Business - September/October 2005 / Q&A with Karen Lee: Putting Washington to Work |
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Q&A with Karen Lee: Putting Washington to Work |
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Written On: September/October 2005 |
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Employment Security Department Commissioner Karen Lee graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1986. After serving in the regular Army for five years, she resigned to attend law school at the University of Washington. Upon graduation, she initially went to work for the law firm of Preston, Gates and Ellis in Seattle. Early this year Lee was in charge of the gas division at Puget Sound Energy when Gov. Christine Gregoire offered her the post at ESD.
Q: How did you come to the governor's attention?
A: When I interviewed, it was really the first time we met. I joke with her now that she gave my graduation speech at law school when she was the attorney general and that was the first time she shook my hand. But we really didn't know each other until I interviewed for this position. I came to her attention through her search process.
Q: What does Gov. Gregoire want you to do at the Employment Security Department?
A: There are two main purposes to my agency. One is to manage the state's unemployment insurance program, a tax-and-insurance type of business. We tax employers on behalf of the employees so that if the employees lose their jobs through no fault of their own, which is the state standard, they have access to unemployment insurance benefits.
In the other half of the agency, we match people with jobs and help match the workforce to the skills needed in the state. There are a myriad of programs to help underemployed or dislocated workers or the people coming from the welfare system or veterans.
On the employment side we knew we were going to be facing budget deficits. So my charge from the governor was to guide the agency through a reduction, which we’re doing right now.
Q: How big is the reduction that you face?
A: We’ve taken a reduction from our state funding sources of about $20 million. That works out to be between 100 and 150 full-time equivalents — or people. And on top of that we’re probably going to see a reduction in the money we get to manage the state’s unemployment insurance program because unemployment is dropping. When it drops, we get less money to manage it.
Q: How does the state define underemployed?
A: If you have dependents and you make $10 an hour, then you are likely receiving some type of direct state support. Even though you're working every day, it’s just not a living wage. So that’s what I would call an underemployed person.
Q: Say I’m 18 years old, just out of high school and I've got average skills. My grades were modest and I’m looking for some kind of work — maybe a career. What can ESD do for me?
A: We would begin with a counselor and ask, "What do you like to do?" We have tests, too, that can help us identify that. Depending on how you answer, we’ll tell you what skills you need to enter that profession. Then we would try to get you into the right training program.
Q: What if a profession requires college? Dr. Mark Emmert, UW president, told me that he turned away 4,500 to 5,000 qualified applicants last year.
A: Our community college system is robust. Yes, the research universities are turning students away, but the community college system in general isn't. What’s interesting is that if you walked into the WorkSource Center in West Seattle, the center is on the campus of the community college. You have to walk through the community college doors to get into the WorkSource Center. You sit down and a counselor guides you to the right type of training.
Q: What about a worker out in the orchards. He might have six months picking fruit, and then six months where he doesn’t have much work.
A: We address that through two agencies. First, the unemployment insurance program allows those farm workers to draw unemployment. On other side, we try to encourage them to get basic skills. Generally, the farm workers are either first- or second-generation immigrants. They have lower education levels and our counselors try to encourage the ag workers to get further education so they can start looking for work to tide them over when they are not able to do farming.
Q: Unemployment insurance...some employers are unhappy with the last Legislature. I suspect the major problem is the departure from four-quarter averaging to two-quarter averaging. Many employers see that as costly.
A: As I understand it, the largest difference of opinion is in the construction industry where the salaries are higher, not in agriculture. It will be interesting to see how that is resolved. We have set up a bi-partisan task force that is that is headed by Sen. Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, and Rep. Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, and we have a liaison to that, the assistant commissioner for UI.
Q: Does this state treat business fairly?
A: I think the state does treat business fairly. To treat business fairly, I think you have to be up front and the business needs to be on notice from the start about the tax structure. I think that our state does that. We don't surprise businesses. And I think that the tax is skewed as to be easy to administer. I also think that there's some improvement that the state can do. I think we could improve on the ease of administration.
Q: What would you consider full employment?
A: I would say that probably, in a perfect world, 4.5 percent [unemployment]. Now, with that, though, I would like to look at different groups. African Americans have a 10 percent unemploy-ment rate. Native Americans, I believe, are right about the same. Certainly, for disadvantaged groups it would be wonderful if their unemployment rates matched the average. Again, I think that that would truly be a perfect world.
Q: How do we get there?
A: I think through our education system. Only 70 percent of our kids graduate from high school. The 30 percent of kids that don’t graduate either find their way into the criminal justice system or are underemployed. I think it all starts with somehow ratcheting up the high schools. If you don’t have a high school education, you’re stuck for life.
Q: What can we do to get more of these kids through high school?
A: Part of it is family values. The parents have to stress education.
Q: Where are these non-graduates five years after high school?
A: If they don’t graduate from high school they’re automatically stuck in job zone one [lowest category — no skills required], and they’re repeat customers to my agency because they are easily laid off.
Q: What kind of examples are we setting in some of our communities? I mean look at the number of kids living in one-parent households. Is that holding those kids back?
A: To me it’s not so much the one-parent household, it’s the one-parent household where the other parent is not contributing. Then the state has to pick up the tab. These kids don’t see the benefit of an occupation or a vocation and what these do for your self esteem.
We somehow have to work with our kids. We somehow have to get the peer pressure back under control. We somehow have to get our societal norms more aligned. We have to get back to: "...This is life, and a good life is getting married, having a vocation, raising a family, and being an addition to your community." That's what life is.
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