In California, most fast food workers are over 18 and the main providers for their family, according to Enrique Lopezlira, director of the University of California-Berkeley Labor Center’s Low Wage Work Program. Just over 75% of health care workers in California are women, and 76% are workers of color, according to a study published earlier this year by the UC Berkely Labor Center.

“Women lost their jobs by far more than men because either their position was affected by the pandemic, or because they needed to quit their job or reduce their work hours because they needed to take care of their children,” Huang said.

Ken Jacobs said, “An economic downturn is an important time to undergird and set a strong floor for wages, to keep families’ income and to keep workers’ incomes up and to stop a ruinous drive down.”

UC Berkeley Labor Center Chair Ken Jacobs joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss how raising the U.S. minimum wage will help workers recover from their outstanding debts during the pandemic.

A recent report by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education found that if the federal minimum wage is raised to $15, more than 23 million Americans will receive a “direct boost” in pay, which would improve their lives amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Proposition 22, which is being put to voters on the same day as the November 3 presidential election, will determine whether California’s government can enforce a law which became effective this year requiring on-demand companies to treat drivers as employees, instead of independent contractors.