For students like Levin Lam, Labor Summer is a game-changer.

This blog post examines the extraordinary growth in job-based health care costs, how this impacts California workers, and what the state can do to mitigate the problem. We focus on costs for family coverage, though a similar story could be told about the cost of single coverage.

In this blog post, we look at veterans’ prominent role in California’s labor unions, using the data and methodology from our recent report, “State of the Unions: California Labor in 2024.”

Rolling back Medicaid access through cuts and bureaucratic hurdles will have far-reaching and disproportionate impacts on older adults. In particular, the work documentation requirement poses an especially draconian barrier to older adults, given the steady dropoff in employment after age 50 due to deteriorating health, age discrimination, and increasing responsibility to provide care for aging family members.

Supporting early educators and expanding childcare access isn’t just morally right—it’s smart economic policy. Higher wages, stable programs, and affordable care options strengthen families and unlock economic potential across generations.

Undergraduates spend spring break learning firsthand about Bay Area labor during the 2025 Solidarity Spring at UC Berkeley.

States can act to preserve and advance President Biden’s most important accomplishment: a set of policies aimed at growing jobs in strategic clean energy sectors across the U.S. while supporting fair wages and equal access to employment.

The onerous documentation needed with Medi-Cal work requirements would increase administrative costs and reduce enrollment and access to care, including for people who are already working or otherwise should be exempt.

Our Low-Wage Work in California Data Explorer offers disaggregated data by regional subgroup for AAPI workers, showing important differences across occupation, gender, and nativity status within this diverse group.

This post explains the the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)’s new guidelines that employers must follow when they use algorithmic scores or background reports generated by third parties to make employment decisions.

As the new executive director of the Labor Center, I would like to introduce myself and share a bit about my background and the values that drive my unwavering commitment to workers.

California is home to the largest population of American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIAN) in the country. To better understand the social and economic forces affecting low-wage AIAN workers in the state, our Low-Wage Work in California Data Explorer includes analysis on this group.

UC Berkeley Labor Center and partners produce resources for all high schoolers.

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.

What does it take to build a union at the world’s largest coffee chain? Jaz Brisack is trying to get it down to a system.

The Labor Center sat down with Practitioner in Residence Alex Caputo-Pearl to delve into some of the work he’s completing during his residency, his role during the 2019 UTLA teacher’s strike, and his upcoming book about the teacher’s labor movement in recent years.

Blog post exploring the factors surrounding a proposal to expand Covered California to undocumented Californians by creating a “mirror marketplace.” This would give undocumented Californians, who are prevented by federal law from participating in Covered California, the ability to shop, compare, and enroll in health plans.

At the latest Labor Center Lead Organizer Training 19 organizers strengthened their organizing skills and learned to cultivate new leaders within their organizations. The frontline leaders from teacher, grocery, and flight attendant unions, and Black, Latino, and Filipino worker centers, among others, learned to adapt different leadership approaches to different circumstances.

Last week, the UC Regents suspended for one year a proposal to allow undocumented students to be employed in campus jobs. The announcement comes after months of protests and a hunger strike by over 20 students.