Updating the California Necessities Index [Publication Details]

Aug 14, 2025 - Updating the California Necessities Index [Publication Details] Translate Our Website This Google ™ translation feature provided on the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) website is for informational purposes only.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5065

Updating the California Necessities Index

Aug 14, 2025 - Recent changes were made to the publication of statistics required to calculate the California Necessities Index, which is used to adjust certain benefit rates and cost-of-living adjustments. In this brief, we provide details on the changes and evaluate alternatives for the index that require only currently available data and conform to the original intent of the index.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5065

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - As shown in Figure  5, roughly half of low-wage workers work at least 40 hours per week at their primary jobs. (In the CPS, roughly 4  percent of California ’s low-wage workers indicate that they hold multiple jobs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/1

Local Sales Tax Rebates in 2023-24

Sep 16, 2025 - For example, to encourage a retailer to set up shop in a city, the city could refund half of the Bradley-Burns tax paid by the retailer. If retailers respond strongly to these rebates, then cities providing them could end up with higher revenues.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5074

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - Single parents with one, two, or three children live in one-bedroom, two-bedroom, or three-bedroom apartments, respectively. An adult couple without children live in a studio/efficiency. An adult couple with one or two children live in a two-bedroom apartment.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/4

Income Mobility in California Across Generations

Jan 4, 2017 - For example, they compare the adult earnings of children who move at age 6 and demographically similar children who move at age 5. Suppose they find that children who move at age 5 can expect to make about $400 per year more than children who move at age 6.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3518

California’s High Housing Costs: Causes and Consequences [Publication Details]

Mar 17, 2015 - See our February 9, 2016 follow up to this report: Perspectives on Helping Low-Income Californians Afford Housing . Reports by Policy Area
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/3214

The 2026-27 Budget: CDTFA’s Cannabis and Tobacco Programs

Feb 23, 2026 - Second, the Legislature passed and the Governor signed Chapter  269 (AB  573, Rogers). This law will raise the annual license fee from $265 to $450 on July 1, 2026. It also authorized CDTFA to make further fee adjustments to cover program costs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5132

Do Communities Adequately Plan for Housing?

Mar 8, 2017 - This shortage means that households compete for limited housing, bidding up home prices and rents. Households unwilling or unable to pay these high costs are forced to live somewhere else. Households forced to live somewhere else do not show up in California’s past demographic trends and therefore are not reflected in RHNA calculations.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3605

The 2025-26 Budget: California’s Film Tax Credit

Feb 28, 2025 - The COVID ‑19 effect was short ‑lived and shoot days returned to pre ‑pandemic levels in 2021. In contrast, filming activity following the strikes has shown no signs of recovering so far, with shoot days slightly declining further in 2024.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5000