California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - The estimates in Figures 6 and 7 suggest that California ’s minimum wage reached an atypically high level around 2019. Since 2019, general wage growth has outpaced prior trends. This broad wage growth apparently has reduced the upward pressure exerted by the statewide minimum wage.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/3

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - We consider five different specifications of the model for Figures 3 and 7, and four different specifications for Figures 4, 5, and 6. All specifications for the wage gaps between specific demographic groups include the indicators for those demographic groups.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/4

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 - 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

Fixing Unemployment Insurance

Dec 2, 2024 - As shown in Figure  6 , absent the non ‑charging policy, we estimate that average tax rates would have been above 5  percent rather than around 3  percent. These lower ‑than ‑expected tax rates have exacerbated the state ’s long ‑standing imbalance between benefits and contributions, contributing to the state ’s current structural deficit.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4943

The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Other Provisions

Oct 16, 2025 - This is a decrease of $10  million  (6  percent) from the revised 2024-25 level. (This does not reflect some adjustments related to Control Sections 4.05 and 4.12 of the 2024-25 and 2025-26 budgets. Please see the “New and Ongoing Efforts to Achieve Efficiencies” section of our post for more information.)
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5081/

The 2025-26 Budget: Update on Implementation of New Firearm and Ammunition Tax

Feb 19, 2025 - These funds would be allocated to school districts based on their share of statewide enrollment in grades 7 to 12. The budget package also required school districts to certify by July 2029 that a certain portion of their staff who work directly with students in grades 7 to 12 have received youth behavioral health training at least once.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4970

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

Feb 20, 2024 - We estimate the Governor ’s budget predicts the state ’s 2024-25 budget will need to address a $58 billion deficit . In December, our office predicted a somewhat large deficit of $68 billion . Since then, recent data has continued to point to the budget problem being larger than the Governor’s budget assumes.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4846

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