Income Inequality

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

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

54% of Latino men in L.A. County fear going hungry

Chris Reed April 10, 2016

While the Census Bureau’s decision to begin issuing poverty rate statistics that include cost of living has established California as the state with the highest percentage of impoverished residents, most media coverage hasn’t focused on the more specific poverty statistics

Lawmakers OK state-wide $15 minimum wage

Matt Fleming March 31, 2016

The Legislature passed it, the governor said he’ll sign it, and so a $15-per-hour minimum wage is all but a done deal. The measure, which raises the wage from $10 per hour incrementally until 2022 and 2023 (depending on the

State leaders, labor groups announce deal on $15 minimum wage

Matt Fleming March 29, 2016

Democratic lawmakers and labor groups announced on Monday a deal to gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour. Gov. Jerry Brown and Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de León of Los Angeles, joined by representatives of the Service Employees

State food stamp enrollment increases, eligible population decreases

Matt Fleming March 24, 2016

Not only is the number of Californians participating in the state’s federally funded food stamp program increasing, but the number of eligible recipients is decreasing, according to state and federal data. California for years has lagged behind the rest of

Civil liberty groups fighting license suspensions for those guilty of “being poor”

Matt Fleming March 22, 2016

A band of civil liberties groups are demanding that California courts stop suspending drivers licenses for failure to pay traffic fines, a practice they argue overwhelmingly affects low-income drivers. A 2013 provision in the state budget offered major relief of fines due before Jan. 2013

Minimum wage divides experts

Matt Fleming February 3, 2016

Voters will likely decide on the November ballot whether or not to raise California’s minimum wage to $15 per hour, even though experts are still divided on the issue. There will be plenty of anecdotes in between now and November

Years after CalWatchdog investigation, bill to end sub-minimum wage advances

John January 8, 2016

More than 2 million workers in California are celebrating the new year’s bump in the minimum wage. Effective January 1, the state’s minimum wage increased from $9 to $10 an hour. But, not all workers in the state benefited from

Los Angeles County the capital of U.S. poverty

Chris Reed December 2, 2015

The Census Bureau’s 2012 decision to begin releasing an alternative measure of poverty that included cost of living has appeared to have far-reaching effects in California as politicians, community leaders and residents react to the new measure’s depiction of the

San Francisco voters to weigh temporary ban on new construction in Mission District

Dave Roberts September 8, 2015

A housing moratorium on San Francisco’s November ballot is aimed at keeping rents and housing prices affordable in the city’s Mission District, where prices have nearly doubled in five years. But opponents say it will have the opposite effect. Proposition