The Labor Center also flags the risks of letting vacancies pile up: strained public services, higher overtime costs, and rising burnout among the employees who stay.
Municipal vacancy rates throughout California, ranging from 5% to 30% across jurisdictions, a 2023 UC Berkeley Labor Center analysis. The study reported that most city officials considered 6% to 10% “not unusual” in normal times.
“A lot of the people who lost coverage were working or eligible for an exemption, but the red tape was so bad that they couldn’t navigate it,” says Nari Rhee, director of the Retirement Security Program at the University of California Berkeley Labor Center.
Exact enrollment data on the post-Proposition 50 district isn’t yet available but the Central Valley relies heavily on the program, according to data from UC Berkeley Labor Center.
This year I will be watching for progress in legislation to establish guardrails around electronic monitoring and algorithmic management, addressing harms such as automated firing, discrimination, invasive surveillance and profiling of union organizers.
The study released Friday by the UC Berkeley Labor Center concludes that Baltimore has “a unique opportunity to be one of the first cities in the nation in setting higher labor standards” for private security, an industry that the report calls “growing and often overlooked.”
A 2023 study by the University of California, Berkeley, Labor Center found public-sector vacancies across all occupations and wage levels in California.
Rhee offered a broader point echoed by several Democrats during the hearing: For most workers, retirement insecurity is driven by wages and cost-of-living pressures that limit the ability to save in the first place.
Rhee also cautioned that the “pricing can be opaque for annuities,” such as the lifetables used and upside lost from variable annuities. “It’s not like a target-date fund, it’s a lot more complicated,” she said.
Nari Rhee, director of the UC Berkeley Labor Center’s Retirement Security Program, also cautioned that “any move to expand the use of annuities as a default investment must include strong guardrails to protect employees’ hard earned savings.”
“As this committee considers potential steps to further include complex lifetime income products to 401(k) plans, I urge you to prioritize the majority of our workforce that is being failed by our retirement system, not just through lack of access to employer sponsored retirement plans, but through low wages that make it difficult to save, especially when housing, food, and healthcare are increasingly unaffordable,” concluded Nari Rhee.
Forty California cities and counties, particularly those in the Los Angeles and Bay Area, have enacted a minimum wage higher than the statewide rate in 2026, according to the UC Berkeley Labor Center.
According to the UC Berkeley Labor Center, here’s where workers earn more than the new state minimum of $16.90 per hour.
“The topic of AI and other digital technologies are showing up in contract fights and organizing campaigns, increasingly in public policy debates across a variety of sectors,” Lisa Kresge, senior researcher at UC Berkeley’s Labor Center, told NPQ.
According to the UC Berkeley Labor Center, here are some of the California counties and cities that will have minimum wages exceeding $17 per hour starting Thursday, Jan. 1.
Along with rising premiums, more California employees also face increasing out-of-pocket costs. Workers bear indirect costs, too, Dietz said. As businesses spend more on health plans, they spend less on wages and other benefits, she said.
In addition, numerous city and county minimum wages will increase on Jan. 1 or later in 2026. The UC Berkeley Labor Center provides a comprehensive Inventory of U.S. City and County Minimum Wage Ordinances.
Valadao’s 22nd District already is already under siege, as it has the highest share of residents enrolled in Medicaid out of any district in California, according to the UC Berkeley Labor Center.
Because Congress failed to act to extend federal health insurance subsidies, everyone who buys insurance on California’s individual market will pay more, including roughly 740,000 Californians who receive no subsidies at all. Miranda Dietz explains.
According to the UC Berkeley Labor Center, local minimum wages in dozens of California municipalities will also rise.
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.
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!
The UC Berkeley Labor Center seeks a Program Coordinator to support its Labor Summer Program and other programs that engage worker organizations.
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.
Quarterly newsletter from the UC Berkeley Labor Center.
The UC Berkeley Labor Center seeks a Grants and Contracts Administrator.
The Labor Center is deeply saddened by the passing of our long-time colleague and friend, Kent Wong, project director for labor and community partnerships and former director of our sister labor center at UCLA for more than 30 years.
The UC Berkeley Labor Center seeks applications for a Research & Policy Associate in the Low-Wage Work Team.
We welcome two new senior researchers, Betony Jones and Josh Sonnenfeld.
The UC Berkeley Labor Center seeks applications for the position of Health Care Program Director.
This two-session workshop will focus on the “why” and “how” of moving towards high-power, high-participation negotiations. You will use McAlevey and Lawlor's book to understand, debate, and discuss the advantages and challenges of shifting the way you negotiate.
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.
This four-day, in-person workshop is offered to lead organizers in labor unions and community-based organizations who want to strengthen their skills in effectively managing their teams to win campaigns. La fecha límite para solicitar es el viernes 24 de octubre de 2025. Ofrecemos esta capacitación de 4 dias en persona para organizadores principales en uniones y organizaciones comunitarias quienes quieren fortalecer sus habilidades de dirigir sus equipos para ganar campañas.
