The idea for the Displaced Oil and Gas Workers Fund grew out of the abrupt 2020 closure of the Marathon Refinery in Contra Costa County. Marathon gave employees just 60 days’ notice and prohibited them from transferring to their other refineries, according to a 2025 report by the UC Berkeley Labor Center.
While big companies are responsible for the largest share of aid recipients, Enrique Lopezlira, director of the Low-Wage Work Program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center, said smaller firms in the same industries often have the same wage models.
Because insurance plans don’t operate in a conventional market — employees are generally limited to plans chosen by their employers — price competition is weaker. Lawsuits, however, can act as a substitute for market pressure, Rhee said. Fees have fallen dramatically since the early 2000s, when the first excessive fees cases were brought, she added.
The UC Berkeley Labor Center reports that the average family premium in California reached $28,397 in 2025, growing faster than inflation and wages. The Office of Health Care Affordability aims to curb spending growth by setting a 3.5% target for 2026, but challenges remain as healthcare costs continue to outpace income growth.
Some 3 million Californians, including 250,000 Orange County residents, are projected to lose coverage by 2028 as a result of policy changes from H.R. 1, last year’s massive federal tax and spending bill, and the state budget, according to a report released earlier this year by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the UC Berkeley Labor Center.
According to research by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and UC Berkeley Labor Center, hundreds of thousands of the region’s workers and residents are in jeopardy of losing Medi-Cal coverage or experiencing reduced benefits by 2028, as a result of policy changes in the federal H.R.1 Trump spending plan.
A new study has shown exactly why this debate matters: According to researchers at UC Berkeley, just 34% of California’s low-wage workers receive health insurance through their own employers, compared with 69% of higher-wage workers.
Call center nurses at the health giant said workplace surveillance tools and AI prioritize speed and cost savings over quality and safety.
To help workers keep pace with rising costs, several California cities have once again increased their local minimum wages.
If adopted, the fair share bill is estimated to raise as much as $8 billion annually and the billionaire’s tax is estimated to raise $20 billion each year over its five-year span, Laurel Lucia, MPP, deputy executive director of programs at the University of California-Berkeley Labor Center, told The Nation’s Health.
The choice of California to apply work requirements to state-funded Medi-Cal recipients “doesn’t really live up to the rhetoric from state officials about trying to implement H.R.1 in the least harmful way possible,” Miranda Dietz said.
If Rodney Strong workers file a petition, the next move would be up to the NLRB, which would decide whether and when to schedule a secret-ballot election. That timeline is not always quick. An analysis from the UC Berkeley Labor Center found that while the agency reports a median of 39 days from petition to election, cases that require hearings last far longer, with an average of about 124 days before a vote.
Most of the increase in household income over the past several decades has come from women’s earnings and more hours worked, not from hourly wage growth, said Enrique Lopezlira, director of the Labor Center at the University of California, Berkeley.
Californians without legal status have higher labor force participation and tend to work in industries and occupations that don’t offer employer-based health insurance. As a result, many resort to Medi-Cal, saddling the state with the healthcare costs instead of employers.
At least 180 state bills have been introduced this year to regulate AI use in workplaces or address technology-related job losses, according to the University of California at Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education.
Miranda Dietz, director of the Health Care Program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center, said close to 3 million Californians will lose healthcare over the next two years as a result of state and federal changes. “The need for health insurance and healthcare is not going anywhere,” Dietz said.
A 2024 UC Berkeley Labor Center study of drivers in five large U.S. metro areas found that after paying for gas, vehicle maintenance and all hours spent driving — including time driving without a passenger — rideshare drivers’ median take-home pay without tips was less than $6 per hour.
“There’s this fine calibration required where employers need the workers for the projects, they can’t start training the workers when they need them,” Betony Jones said. “But workers can’t train and then wait around.”
The number of Californians without health insurance could nearly double by 2030, according to a new report from the UC Berkeley Labor Center and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
The stakes are incredibly high. The UC Berkeley Labor Center has estimated that as many as 3 million Californians are at risk of losing Medi-Cal coverage by 2028 as a result of policy changes and funding cuts to the program under the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
A new UC Berkeley Labor Center report finds that while East Bay workers experienced real wage growth (adjusted for inflation) during the recovery from the COVID-19 recession, many still lived at or “near” poverty, struggling to make ends meet.
A report from the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) and the UC Berkeley Labor Center that provides a snapshot of the California labor movement. It analyzes the most recent publicly available data on union density, member demographics, and labor organizing activity in California and the nation, and features case studies highlighting victories for workers in the fast-food, warehousing, and agriculture industries.
A new case study released by the UC Berkeley Labor Center looks at the lessons for current elected officials, unions, and community groups from redeveloping the Oakland Army base 25 years ago.
New research from the UC Berkeley Labor Center and UCLA Center for Health Policy Research finds that if Congress does not extend the expanded subsidies implemented under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, some 2.4 million Californians in the individual market—most of whom are enrolled in Covered California—would face higher health insurance premiums.
A first-of-its-kind analysis of app passenger and delivery drivers’ wages in the Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, and Seattle metropolitan areas finds that most gig drivers in these cities make significantly less than minimum wage when all work time, gas, and vehicle wear and tear are factored in.
A predicted boom in warehouse automation did not materialize, according to this new report.
Monterey County has some of the highest hospital costs in the state. To better understand why health care costs are so high in this Central Coast county, there is an urgent need to collect and analyze data that can help point to causes and solutions to the problem.
A new report by the UC Berkeley Labor Center finds that defined benefit pensions—especially public pensions—are critical to providing adequate retirement income for California seniors, especially for women, Black, and Latino retirees, and those without a four-year college degree.
This report provides the first in-depth look at the labor market for agricultural truck drivers in California and the first study of this workforce anywhere in the U.S. in almost 30 years. It finds that, while there is not a shortage of people interested in truck driving, the industry faces challenges with retaining drivers, with turnover being especially high for long-haul drivers.
A study by the UC Berkeley Labor Center finds that union members are more likely to be women and people of color than 20 years ago.
Former Senior Researcher Lisa Kresge is the new Director of the Labor Center’s Technology and Work Program. Outgoing Director Annette Bernhardt will continue to support the program and our partners in her new position as the Labor Center’s Senior Tech Policy Advisor.
The UC Berkeley Labor Center seeks a Program Coordinator to support its Leadership Development program.
The UC Berkeley Labor Center seeks applications for a Research & Policy Associate in the Low-Wage Work Team.
The UC Berkeley Labor Center seeks applications for the position of Policy Researcher/Senior Policy Researcher in its Green Economy Program
Security guards are essential workers who ensure public safety in buildings, hospitals, and transportation hubs—but their compensation and working conditions do not reflect their important role. Our series of briefs examines wages, job quality, and workforce characteristics in the private security industry across multiple geographies.
The UC Berkeley Labor Center seeks applications for the position of Technology and Work Program Director.
The UC Berkeley Labor Center seeks a Policy Researcher / Senior Policy Researcher for its Health Care Program.
Join us in 2026! Announcing the dates of our new year of Leadership Development courses: Power and Participation in Negotiations, Skills to Win, our all new training Power Structure Analysis, and Lead Organizer Training!
Miranda Dietz, who has been the Labor Center’s interim Health Care Program director since July, has taken over as the permanent lead of the program.
With excitement and gratitude, we announce the just-established Low-Wage Workforce of Color Endowment, spearheaded by former Labor Center Chair Katie Quan, to ensure ongoing support for research and capacity building for years to come.
Hear from Labor Center staff and researchers about their work, meet other students interested in the labor movement, and learn how you can get involved at our Fall 2026 open house!
Join us for this panel and open conversation with UC Berkeley undergraduate students involved in union organizing and membership at their jobs.
The Skills to Win Workshop is a six-week series for rank and file members and staff of unions, worker associations, worker centers, and community organizations that are embarking on, or in the midst of, organizing campaigns.
PERB, the Public Employment Relations Board, turns 50 this year! Join us September 19 for a half-day conference celebrating public workers, their unions, and PERB!
Join us for a screening of the short film Partners: How Starbucks Baristas Started a Labor Revolution, followed by a dynamic panel and Q&A with labor organizers and workers in the coffee and retail industries—including those in the film!
