Savannah Hunter is a labor policy researcher with the Low-Wage Work Program. She recently completed her Ph.D. in sociology from UC Davis. Savannah has significant experience in labor policy research. Her policy research has focused on work and inequality, particularly in areas confronting low-wage workers and their families including irregular work scheduling, shift cuts, gig work, and health and safety. She has co-published various policy briefs on precarious working conditions, including policy briefs for the UC Davis Center for Poverty Research and the Scholars Strategy Network.
The Data Explorer shows that workers of color, women, and immigrants are overrepresented among the 5.6 million workers paid a low wage. A clear understanding of these demographic patterns in low-wage work is essential to addressing economic inequality in the state.
Who is paid low wages in California? The UC Berkeley Labor Center just updated its Low-Wage Work in California Data Explorer, which provides a wide range of data on the state’s 5.6 million workers who are paid low wages.
We find that job vacancies in local government appear to be a widespread and significant problem for the public sector affecting a wide range of occupations across wage levels and educational requirements. We offer suggested policy solutions raised by subject matter experts and other reports and analyses on job vacancy challenges in local government.
Chartbook comparing California union membership and coverage from 2001-2002 and 2021-2022. Findings show that at least half of all of California’s 2.5 million union members are women and that the majority of all union workers are people of color. By contrast, 20 years ago the typical union member in California was a white man.
Union membership today is different than a generation ago. It’s not your grandfather’s union anymore.
Many of Sonoma County’s hiring challenges and strategies are echoed in the findings of a report published last month by the UC Berkeley Labor Center.
Savannah Hunter and Kate O’Hara speak with host Cat Brooks on the Labor Center report “The state of working East Bay, 2015-2019.”
