The 2026-27 Budget: California Competes Extension

Mar 18, 2026 - Figure  3 shows how credits have been allocated across sectors over the last five years. Of the $1.2  billion in awards made between 2021 and 2025, around $650  million, or over half, has been allocated to businesses in advanced manufacturing.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5162

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 - Over the last decade, two statutes —Chapter  351 of 2013 (AB  10, Alejo) and Chapter  4 of 2016 (SB  3, Leno) —gradually have increased California ’s statewide minimum wage from $8 per hour to $16 per hour.
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 2026-27 Budget: CDTFA’s Cannabis and Tobacco Programs

Feb 23, 2026 - Actual spending on the Tobacco Licensing Program declined from $9.1  million in 2021 ‑22 to $6.9  million in 2024 ‑25, while actual spending on the Cannabis Tax Program grew from $8.4  million in 2021 ‑22 to $16.2  million in 2024 ‑25.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5132

Fixing Unemployment Insurance

Dec 2, 2024 - As Figure  2 shows, the outstanding loan balance has remained essentially the same since late 2021. Under the federal loan repayment rules, employers now face escalating federal UI taxes that will be directed toward repaying the loan principal.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4943

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

Overview of Diversity Efforts in the Film Tax Credit Program

May 1, 2025 - Chapter  114 of 2021 (S B  144 , Portantino) required our office to issue a report summarizing the workforce diversity information collected by the California Film Commission (CFC) and evaluate the effectiveness of the tax credit for increasing diversity.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5036