Low-Wage Work

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Newsletter

The Labor Center conducts a wide range of research on low-wage work in California and nationally. Our research focuses on documenting and understanding working conditions in low-wage industries, especially for women, immigrants, and workers of color. We also analyze policies to raise labor standards at the local, state, and national levels.

For an in-depth description of California’s low-wage workforce, see our Data Explorer.

View our Inventory of US City and County Minimum Wage Ordinances.

You can also visit our Black Worker project.

Minimum wage, living wage, and other labor standards studies.

Research on the societal and fiscal costs of low-wage work.

In-depth studies of labor markets and working conditions in low-wage industries.

Research & Publications

Julie Light

What difference would a $25/hr wage make to health care workers?

Despite being applauded for their essential role and dedication during the COVID pandemic, many low-wage health care workers struggle to make ends meet. A recent UC Berkeley Labor Center Study study looks at what a proposal before the California State Legislature to raise the health care minimum wage to $25 an hour would mean for workers, patients, and industry.

Enrique Lopezliraand Ken Jacobs

Proposed health care minimum wage increase: What it would mean for workers, patients, and industry

This report shows that the proposed California Senate Bill No. 525 (SB 525), which would establish a new $25 per hour minimum wage for health care employees, has the potential to substantially improve conditions for low-wage health care workers that provide essential services to the state, ameliorate staffing shortages in the industry, and improve quality of care.

Inventory of US City and County Minimum Wage Ordinances

Across the country, cities and counties have become laboratories of policy innovation on labor standards. Before 2012, only five localities had minimum wage laws; currently, 56 counties and cities do. To help inform policymakers and other stakeholders, the UC Berkeley Labor Center is maintaining an up-to-date inventory of these laws, with details on wage levels, scheduled increases, and other law details, as well as links to the ordinances.

Aida Farmand, Tynan Challenor, Savannah Hunter, Enrique Lopezliraand Ken Jacobs

State workers struggle to make ends meet throughout California; Women, Black, and Latino workers are disproportionately affected

The California state government has close to a quarter of a million employees, almost half of whom are women and almost two-thirds of whom are workers of color. But across occupations and throughout the state, many state workers earn well below what is needed to attain a decent standard of living in California.

Press Coverage

Forbes

Why Raising Healthcare Workers Wages Pays Off

The Berkeley researchers show that the low wages paid to healthcare support workers, direct care workers, and healthcare service workers in California have resulted in their constant struggle to meet basic needs.

Program Contacts

Enrique Lopezlira

Director, Low-Wage Work Program

Annette Bernhardt

Director, Technology and Work Program

Aida Farmand

Research and Policy Associate

Savannah Hunter

Research and Policy Associate

Seema Patel

Practitioner in Residence