Fixing Unemployment Insurance

Dec 2, 2024 - Employers pay UI taxes on the first $7,000 of each worker ’s earnings, but the vast majority of workers earn more than $7,000  in each job annually. As a result, employers pay the same amount in UI taxes on behalf of basically every employee in the state, regardless of how much that employee earns.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4943

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - For respondents who report usual weekly earnings and hours but not hourly wages, we calculate the hourly wage by dividing usual weekly earnings by weekly hours. We default to using usual weekly hours, but we use last week ’s hours if usual hours are not available.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/4

Tax Credit Expansions in the American Rescue Plan

Apr 13, 2021 - This piece will briefly describe the changes to three credits that apply to many lower-income and middle-income filers: the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), the Child Tax Credit (CTC), and the Child and Dependent Care Expenses Credit ( “child care credit ”).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4410

The 2025-26 Budget: Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development

Mar 18, 2025 - Overall, most programs increase employment and earnings among participants while receiving a subsidy. However, the ultimate goal is to improve long-term employment prospects of these workers. Research suggests that it is less common that programs lead to h igher employment or earnings after the subsidy ends.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5018

Effect of Returning to Historical Estimated Tax Payment Schedule

Feb 27, 2023 - These payments are made in April, June, and September of the year the income is earned, as well as January of the following year. State Changed Payment Schedule During Great Recession to Address Budget Problem.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4722

The 2026-27 Budget: California Competes Extension

Mar 18, 2026 - In earlier years, individual awards were much smaller and more numerous, whereas recent rounds have a much smaller number of awards that are typically worth several million dollars each. Changes made to the program in 2018 likely explain much of this trend.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5162

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - Differences in Weekly Hours Amplify Earnings Inequality. Figure  5 shows that mid-to-high-wage workers are much more likely to work full-time than low-wage workers. As a result, the gap between these groups ’ weekly earnings is wider than the gap between their hourly wages.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/1

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - These simple dollars-per-hour comparisons make California ’s minimum wage seem high, but they are not necessarily meaningful. In this post, we compare the statewide minimum wage to various benchmarks that, in our view, are more closely connected to the purposes and economic effects of the policy.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/3

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

Feb 28, 2025 - Motion Picture Industry Workers Earn Above Average Wages. In 2023, workers in California ’s motion picture industry earned a weekly wage of over $2,700 on average, 60  percent higher than the average weekly wage in California across all industries ($1,730).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5000

The 2023-24 Budget: California's Film Tax Credit

Feb 28, 2023 - One of the more optimistic estimates from the studies mentioned above suggests that each dollar of film tax credit results in an increase of $2 to $4 in earnings for workers in that state. At the same time, research on other types of public spending —such as K ‑12 education and workforce development —suggests comparable or better earnings benefits for workers (Heinrich et al. [2013], Jackson [2015], and Hollenbeck [2017]).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4713