California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - We construct the estimates in the figures using workers who provided a wage response in 2023. Using the probit estimates described above, we weight each worker by the predicted inverse probability of providing a wage response.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/4

Fixing Unemployment Insurance

Dec 2, 2024 - To ensure revenues match benefits over time, states enacted UI financing systems. These systems are comprised of three elements: (1) a tax rate “schedule” that adjusts up or down to match revenues and benefit costs, (2) a taxable wage base level to which the tax rate applies, and (3) an experience rating factor to ensure employers pay their fair share of UI costs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4943

Improving California’s Unemployment Insurance Program

Aug 8, 2022 - In our assessment, today ’s problems do not call for fundamental reforms that could upend longstanding tenants of the state ’s labor market. Instead, targeted changes to state practices could improve the experience unemployed workers have when they need UI.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4615

The 2026-27 Budget: CDTFA’s Cannabis and Tobacco Programs

Feb 23, 2026 - Under the Governor ’s budget proposal for the Cannabis Tax Program, this appropriation would increase to match current program spending. Administration Has Been Spending General Fund on Cannabis Tax Enforcement.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5132

Updating the California Necessities Index

Aug 14, 2025 - While future data availability cannot be fully predicted, certain statistics are statistically more reliable than others and ar e thus more likely to be available in the future. Options Considered Based on the criteria discussed above, we consider the following options for replacing the CNI.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5065

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 - Namely, those tax credits could have been awarded to another applicant who would have been more likely to achieve their milestones. However, as we discuss next, this has not been the case in the last few years of the program.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5162

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

Feb 19, 2026 - However, Proposition  19 (2020) allows certain homeowners (such as people who are 55 years or older) to transfer their existing home value for property tax purposes to a new home anywhere in the state.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5130

Annual Report on Tax Exemptions for Medicinal Cannabis

Jun 24, 2025 - The data do not tell us who received each donation. Some patients likely received more than one donation in 2024, so this total likely overstates the number of distinct patients. For example, if a patient received six donations in 2024, then the transaction total includes that person six times.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5059

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - For the most common types of low-wage workers —those who do not have children or who live with at least one other worker —the minimum wage is at least two times the poverty level. Official Poverty Measure Paints an Incomplete Picture.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/3