California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - Strengths and Weaknesses of Data Sources Primary Data Source: Monthly Current Population Surveys (CPS). Most of the estimates in our posts use data from the outgoing rotation groups from the Basic Monthly CPS.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/4

California's New Minimum Wage: Who are California's Low-Wage Workers? [EconTax Blog]

Dec 6, 2016 - Like all survey data, however, the CPS has a variety of limitations. Due to these limitations, the actual numbers could be higher or lower than the estimates presented here. (We downloaded the CPS data for October 2015 through September 2016 from the National Bureau of Economic Research .)
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/223

California's New Minimum Wage: Low-Wage Workers' Family Sizes & Incomes [EconTax Blog]

Dec 6, 2016 - Like all survey data, however, the CPS has a variety of limitations. Due to these limitations, the actual numbers could be higher or lower than the estimates presented here. (We downloaded the CPS data for October 2015 through September 2016 from the National Bureau of Economic Research .)
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/224

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - In the second approach, we use CPS data from 2002 through 2023 to track the how the rate of low-wage work changes over time for cohorts of workers born in the same year. Limitations of Survey-Based Estimates.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/2

COVID-19 and the Labor Market: Which Workers Have Been Hardest Hit by the Pandemic? [EconTax Blog]

Nov 2, 2020 - Data on individual employment is from the CPS, overseen by the BLS and the U.S. Census Bureau. The CPS is the federal government ’s primary source for employment rates and other labor market information.
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/531

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - (In the CPS, roughly 4  percent of California ’s low-wage workers indicate that they hold multiple jobs. Some research suggests that CPS respondents likely underreport independent contracting work.) Weekly hours among part-time low-wage workers vary substantially, with many working less than half-time and many others working nearly full -time.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/1

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - Minimum Wage as Policy to Address Inequality In this section, we use data from the monthly Current Population Surveys (CPS) from January 2022 through December 2023 to estimate three measures of wage inequality.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/3

How Have Past Stock Market Downturns Affected Income Tax Revenue? [EconTax Blog]

Mar 9, 2026 - By most measures, the global financial crisis was more severe than the dot-com crash. The state 's unemployment rate, for example, peaked at 7 percent following the dot-com crash but reached nearly double that during the financial crisis and remained elevated for much longer.
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/852

How Have Past Stock Market Downturns Affected Income Tax Revenue? [EconTax Blog]

Mar 9, 2026 - By most measures, the global financial crisis was more severe than the dot-com crash. The state 's unemployment rate, for example, peaked at 7 percent following the dot-com crash but reached nearly double that during the financial crisis and remained elevated for much longer.
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/article/Detail/852

California’s Strong Revenue Trends Mask Looming Budget Risk

Jan 23, 2026 - After the dot-com bust and the Great Recession, it took four and five years, respectively, for revenues to recover. Incorporating revenue risk into the budget now, therefore, reflects prudence, not pessimism.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5104