California economy

Is state Legislature hampering CalPERS, CalSTRS?

The California Public Employees Retirement System and the California State Teachers Retirement System recently announced that they had exceeded their investment goals by at least 1 percentage point in fiscal 2017-18, with CalPERS citing annual gains of 8.6 percent and

Silicon Valley faces slowdown

James Poulos April 12, 2017

Market watchers have keyed in to a series of statistics suggesting breakneck growth in Silicon Valley has begun to slow down. “Tech companies in San Francisco and San Mateo counties lost 700 jobs from January to February and tech employment

State-run retirement program may massively expand federal equivalent

Matt Fleming October 7, 2016

State officials in charge of implementing a new state-run retirement program are considering using the federal MyRA program temporarily, which would be a big boon to President Barack Obama’s struggling initiative. The MyRA program is one of a few possibilities being

Gov. Brown OKs state-run retirement plan

Matt Fleming September 29, 2016

Starting around 2018, most workers in California will be automatically enrolled in a private retirement account run by the state. Through a legislative measure, signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday, most workers in the state who don’t have access to an

San Francisco inequality breeds political unease

James Poulos September 23, 2016

As San Francisco’s sharp inequality draws national attention this election year, California Democrats have begun to question how to explain their role in fostering — and reversing — the trend. The gulf between the progressive city’s richest and poorest,

Gov. Brown signs controversial farmworker overtime bill

Matt Fleming September 12, 2016

By 2022, California’s agriculture workers will have the same overtime pay structure as most other employees in the state after Gov. Jerry Brown signed the measure into law on Monday. The bill’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, took to Twitter to

Despite several big environmental wins during last days of session, one big bill got away

Matt Fleming September 1, 2016

Democrats will walk away from the two-year legislative session that ended Thursday morning with a long list of environmental accomplishments — but still one got away. A bill sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, would

Farm worker OT bill passes over objections about rule violations

Matt Fleming August 29, 2016

A bill expanding overtime pay for farm workers passed the Assembly on Monday and now heads to the governor for a final verdict. The bill would, over the course of a few years, bring the overtime structure for farm workers in

Farmworker overtime passes easy test in Senate, faces challenge in Assembly

Matt Fleming August 22, 2016

As expected, a bill expanding overtime pay for farmworkers passed the Senate on Monday along party lines. It moves to the Assembly next, where it died earlier this year. While farmworkers do get overtime, there is a much higher threshold than

CA wage hike shock waves begin

James Poulos April 21, 2016

Confronted with an impending hike to $15 in the California minimum wage, businesses, labor advocates and political analysts have all begun to shift strategies and tactics. Given current trends, the combined impact could be a smaller, more unionized workforce — that