Report Reducing Child Poverty in California: A Look at Housing Costs, Wages, and the Safety Net By Sarah Bohn, Caroline Danielson Nov 14, 2017 Nearly a quarter of young children in California live in poverty—a fact that has profound educational, health, and economic repercussions now and in the long term. High housing costs and low wages are key barriers to reducing the prevalence of child poverty. Lawmakers have taken action to address these issues: the minimum wage is slated to increase to $15 an hour by 2022, and recently enacted laws aim to ease the state’s housing crisis.
Fact Sheet The Working Poor in California By Sarah Bohn, Caroline Danielson, Sara Kimberlin, Patricia Malagon Oct 18, 2023 Most poor families in California are working. Poverty rates among working adults are highest in southern, coastal California.
Report Meeting California’s Need for College Graduates: A Regional Perspective By Hans Johnson, Kevin Cook, Marisol Cuellar Mejia Jun 27, 2017 Los Angeles County, the Inland Empire, and the San Joaquin Valley will play a critical role in whether California can keep up with the economy’s growing need for college graduates. Colleges and universities in these regions will need to work together to boost graduation rates, while enrolling more freshmen and transferring more students.
California Counts, Report How Immigrants Affect California Employment and Wages By Giovanni Peri Feb 27, 2007 This issue of California Counts examines the effects of the arrival of immigrants between 1960 and 2004 on the employment, population, and wages of U.S. natives in California. Among the study’s principal findings: 1) There is no evidence that the influx of immigrants over the past four decades has worsened the employment opportunities of natives with similar education and experience, 2) There is no association between the influx of immigrants and the out-migration of natives within the same education and age group, 3) Immigration induced a 4 percent real wage increase for the average native worker between 1990 and 2004, 4) Recent immigrants did lower the wages of previous immigrants.
California Counts, Report Population Mobility and Income Inequality in California By Deborah Reed, Mary C. Daly, Heather N. Royer May 1, 2001 Examines trends in family income inequality through 1999, focusing in particular on the relationship between inequality and population movement into and out of California. Finds that international immigration explains about one-third of California's growing inequality over the past three decades, while the substantial exodus from the state in the 1990s had little effect, since out-migrants tended to be in families at all levels of the income distribution.
Report Increasing the Minimum Wage: California’s Winners and Losers By Thomas E. MaCurdy, Margaret O’Brien-Strain May 1, 2000 As a policy tool, minimum wage increases rely heavily on two assumptions: that such increases help the poor and impose little public or social cost. In Increasing the Minimum Wage: California’s Winners and Losers, Margaret O’Brien-Strain and Thomas MaCurdy test both assumptions by modeling the effects of the 1996 federal increase from $4.25 to $5.15 per hour. Noting that low-income families receive a relatively small portion of the additional earnings and that higher labor costs put upward pressure on the prices of products these families buy, the authors conclude that minimum wage increases do not help poor families as much as more targeted policy options.
Statewide Survey PPIC Statewide Survey: Californians and Information Technology By Mark Baldassare, Dean Bonner, Sonja Petek, Jui Shrestha Jun 22, 2011 Some findings of the current survey: The share of Californians using a cell phone to access the Internet has doubled in three years, from 19 to 40 percent. Surfing the web via cell phone is up for all racial and ethnic groups. Forty-one percent of residents in the San Francisco Bay Area use cell phones to work remotely; 31 percent in Los Angeles and 24 percent in the Central Valley do so. Mood of Californians:General Direction of Things in California [PDF]Economic Outlook for California [PDF] Time Trends for the Mood of Californians: General Direction of Things in California [XLS]Economic Outlook for California [XLS] This survey was supported with funding from the California Emerging Technology Fund and ZeroDivide.
Report Improving Career Education Pathways into California’s Workforce By Shannon McConville, Sarah Bohn, Bonnie Brooks, Mina Dadgar Jul 27, 2021 COVID-19 hit workers with less education hardest, underscoring the need for public investments in workforce training. In this report, we describe student pathways through career education programs at community colleges and discuss insights from stakeholder interviews on how to help more people complete programs and connect to quality jobs.
Report Health Training Pathways at California’s Community Colleges By Shannon McConville, Sarah Bohn, Landon Gibson Dec 1, 2016 State and federal policymakers looking to improve economic mobility and meet workforce needs have renewed their focus on career technical education. Health training is of particular interest—California’s community colleges offer a range of health programs and credentials and demand is growing for health workers with some college training. Students who earn shorter-term health credentials tend to see relatively low wage gains, and relatively few return to school to pursue higher-level training. Targeted outreach and support could help more students move along pathways to higher earnings. This research was supported with funding from the ECMC Foundation and the Sutton Family Fund.
California Economic Policy, Report The Workers’ Compensation Crisis in California: A Primer By David Neumark Jan 13, 2005 This issue of California Economic Policy examines why California’s workers’ compensation costs have soared over the past four years, far exceeding premium increases in the rest of the country. It finds that the two most important contributors to the cost run-ups are rising medical costs and increasing numbers of major permanent partial disability cases. Recent legislative reforms may help resolve the situation, but more research and evaluation is needed.
