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.
September 2, 2022
Without union protection, workers are being cheated by their employers
May 18, 2022
California’s Labor Market in the Time of COVID-19
May 12, 2022
Low-Wage Work in California Data Explorer
May 16, 2022
RELEASE: Failure to Deliver: Assessing Amazon’s Freedom of Association Policy under International Labor Standards
May 15, 2022
40 years later, labor leaders remember NYC Chinatown’s garment worker strike
The California Legislature has passed AB257 and it now heads to the Governor’s desk. The FAST Recovery Act provides a way for the state’s fast-food workers to have a voice in the development and implementation of labor standards in their industry.
Our minimum wage and living wage tools and resources includes our Inventory of US City and County Minimum Wage Ordinances and a table of current local minimum wages in California.
The Living Wage Act is a proposed ballot measure to increase the California minimum wage to $18 an hour by 2025. This report examines which workers stand to benefit from the proposed increase.
New research finds that an $18 minimum wage would give five million California workers a pay raise; the ballot initiative would help lift 3.5 million Californians out of poverty.
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.
In California, Latino workers make up nearly 38% of the state’s overall workforce and the majority of the state’s low wage earners, according to data from the U.C. Berkeley Labor Center.
That fragmented nature of the modern fast-food industry renders it impossible to follow a traditional labor organizing model.
Ken Jacobs and others discuss how the FAST Recovery Act could affect California’s economy and its fast food workers
The raise would also save you money: A 2021 study from the UC Berkeley Labor Center found that low wages cost taxpayers $100 billion annually, because people earning those wages have to depend on social programs like SNAP and Medicaid.
As union membership has declined, so has workers’ quality of life. Nearly 40% of construction workers need government assistance to get by, a higher rate than the general population.
Enrique Lopezlira
Director, Low-Wage Work Program
Annette Bernhardt
Director, Technology and Work Program
Ken Jacobs
Labor Center Chair
Savannah Hunter
Research and Policy Associate
