California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - We apply this method to monthly CPS data from January 2022 through December 2023 to construct the estimates that appear in Figures 3 through 7 in the post Is California’s Minimum Wage High, Low, or Somewhere in Between?
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/4

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - We list some of these policies in Figure  1 below. Figure 1
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - Figure  3 shows that most low-wage workers live in households without any children under 18. Roughly 20  percent live with one child, 15  percent with two children, and fewer than 10  percent with three or more children.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/1

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - As shown in Figure  3, our estimates suggest that the share of workers in low-wage jobs declines by more than one-third between the ages of 25 and 32. This decline suggests that a substantial share of workers spend just a handful of years in low-wage jobs before moving on to mid-to-high-wage jobs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/2

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - As shown in Figure  3, although California ’s nominal minimum wage has doubled over the last decade, the hourly wage gap between low-wage (10 th percentile) workers and average (median) workers has barely changed over that period.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/3

The 2024-25 Budget: Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development

Feb 20, 2024 - For example, in such an environment it could make sense to limit new funding to proven ways of (1) addressing critical health and safety issues or (2) preventing serious deterioration of core state responsibilities.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4846

The 2026-27 Budget: California Competes Extension

Mar 18, 2026 - All three of these changes could have contributed to the trend shown in Figure  2 if (1)  The 25  percent rule was favoring smaller businesses above better-qualified applicants from larger firms, (2)  larger businesses provide better evidence on how the credit affects their decision-making, and (3)  larger firms are more likely to have, or participate in, job training programs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5162

The 2026-27 Budget: State Mandate—Disclosure Requirements and Deferral of Property Taxation

Feb 19, 2026 - In particular, state law directs our office to report on the annual state costs for new mandates and make recommendations to the Legislature as to whether the new mandates should be (1)  repealed (permanently eliminating it or making it optional), (2)  suspended (rendering it inoperative for one year), (3)  modified, or (4)  funded.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5130

Fixing Unemployment Insurance

Dec 2, 2024 - Our recommended approach, as summarized in Figure  11 , has four parts: (1)  increase the taxable wage base, (2)  redesign employer tax rates, (3)  rethink employer experience rating, and (4)  refinance the federal loan.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4943

The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Other Provisions

Oct 16, 2025 - On October 3, 2025, DOF notified the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) that it had finalized a $20  million contract with a vendor on September 26, 2025. Based on the scope of the contract, the administration now anticipates (1)  savings of $425  million in 2025-26 from two departments ($300  million from DHCS and $125  million from CDCR) and (2)  unknown savings in the outyears.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5081