The Labor Center conducts in-depth research on how work is changing in the US labor market, especially for low-wage workers, women, immigrants, and workers of color. Our research helps policymakers, unions, and other stakeholders respond to the challenges and opportunities facing workers in the years ahead. We consider both new and ongoing trends, including technological change, outsourcing, and gig work.
The impact of new technologies in the workplace, and how workers and public policy can respond
Independent contracting, gig work, and employee misclassification
Fissured workplaces, subcontracting, and effects on wages and job quality
The UC Berkeley Labor Center seeks applications for a Lead Policy Researcher in the Technology and Work Program.
The UC Berkeley Labor Center seeks applications for a Lead Policy Researcher in the Technology and Work Program.
Our goal in this comment is to highlight evidence indicating the prevalence of automated workplace surveillance and management technologies, impact on workers resulting from employers’ use of these systems, and principles and policy models for worker technology rights and protections.
Passage of AB 2257 has caused only minor changes in coverage of the ABC test under AB 5.
This report explores how governments use technology, what drives technology adoption, and how technologies affect public sector workers and the delivery of public services. Using examples across local, state, and federal governments, the report finds that transparency and accountability have lagged behind rapid technology adoption in the wake of COVID-19, and that public sector workers play a critical role in ensuring that technology is used to strengthen the ability of governments to provide quality and equitable public services.
June 5, 2023
The vast majority of California’s independent contractors are still covered by the ABC test
January 10, 2023
Technology in the public sector and the future of government work
March 22, 2023
Senate Bill Would Be Big Step to Combatting Harmful Workplace Surveillance Practices
November 29, 2022
Expert Focus: Studying the future of work and technology’s impact on workers
November 3, 2021
Data and Algorithms at Work: The Case for Worker Technology Rights
October 4, 2021
Labor Center Research on the Rideshare Industry
September 29, 2021
Massachusetts Uber/Lyft Ballot Proposition Would Create Subminimum Wage: Drivers Could Earn as Little as $4.82 an Hour
January 15, 2021
Prop 22 Is Here, and It’s Already Worse Than Expected
May 7, 2020
What would Uber and Lyft owe to the State Unemployment Insurance Fund?
October 31, 2019
The Uber/Lyft Ballot Initiative Guarantees only $5.64 an Hour
“If technologies are not developed with the user in mind, they often fail,” said Lisa Kresge, a research and policy associate at the University of California Berkeley Labor Center, who has written about union responses to technology.
The Teamsters cite a 2018 study by the U.C. Berkeley Labor Center on autonomous trucks which notes that, “Without policy intervention, automation will likely eliminate high- and mid-wage trucking jobs, while creating low-quality driving jobs (in their place).”
Automation could replace up to 294,000 long-distance drivers and trade higher-paid jobs for more precarious work in an industry that has long grappled with misclassification.
California may have an active labor movement and labor-friendly political leaders in control of its Legislature and many city councils. But almost one in three California workers — 4.3 million people — are employed in a job that pays less than $18.02 per hour, according to a UC Berkeley Labor Center data explorer.
A recent report from the University of California, Berkeley’s Labor Center, however, has stressed how public sector automation is a high stakes challenge.
Annette Bernhardt
Director, Technology and Work Program
Lisa Kresge
Research and Policy Associate
Ken Jacobs
Labor Center Chair
Sara Hinkley
Policy Research Specialist
Seema Patel
Practitioner in Residence
