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

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

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

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

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

Improving California’s Unemployment Insurance Program

Aug 8, 2022 - The state sets weekly UI payments based on prior earnings. Workers receive half of their average weekly earnings, based on their highest earning quarter of their base year. State law set in 2005 also caps the maximum payment at $450 per week.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4615

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

The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Other Provisions

Oct 16, 2025 - Firms earning over 50  percent of their total income from a list of “qualified business activities ” (QBA) are subject to a different apportionment method that includes the location of their sales, payroll, and property.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5081/

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - To assess housing affordability for minimum-wage workers, we compare monthly earnings for full-time workers making the main minimum wage in each county to HUD ’s estimate of “fair market rent ” for housing in that county.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/3