Recent ile_scl2004 items

The Hidden Public Costs of Low-Wage Jobs in California

Mon, 22 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000

California’s new economy is fostering far more growth among high- and low-wage jobs compared to middle-income jobs. The development of the hourglass economy means that there is a growing number of low-wage workers who cannot support their families even if they work full-time. As a consequence, they must turn to public assistance to meet the basic needs of their families. This study by Carol Zabin, Arindrajit Dube, and Ken Jacobs is the first to quantify how much it costs the public to provide what paychecks don’t. In California, two million working families received public assistance in 2002. The price tag for this assistance was $10 billion per year, with most support going to families with full-time workers who earned near the minimum wage.

The authors analyzed the ten largest means-tested public assistance programs that Californians participate in: Medi-Cal, the Earned Income Tax Credit, CalWORKs, Food Stamps, Free or Reduced Price Lunch, Women, Infants, and Children...

Recent Developments in California Labor Relations

Mon, 22 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000

In recent years, California has seen a number of high-profile work stoppages such as an extended dispute in Southern California supermarkets. Despite this, the state does not seem more dispute-prone than other states when California’s unionization rate is taken into account. About half of California’s unionized workers are in the public sector, where recent pay settlements seem to reflect the state’s fiscal crisis. In the private sector, NLRB charges tend to reflect California’s industrial composition and areas where organizing activity is occurring, such as building services. A special sample of state union contracts suggests that they have relatively long durations, often years or more. Only 13% have escalator clauses reflecting the relative low and stable inflation rate of recent years. Close to a third have two-tier pay provisions.

California unions generally opposed the 2003 recall of Governor Gray Davis. When Davis was replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger, however,...

Paid Family Leave in California: New Research Findings

Mon, 22 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Ruth Milkman and Eileen Appelbaum examine one of California’s most important recent legislative initiatives: the paid family leave law that was passed in 2002 and took effect in mid-2004. California is the first state in the nation to provide paid family leave to its workers. The authors review the developments leading to the establishment of this new program, which builds on California’s longstanding State Disability Insurance system. The paid leave program covers virtually all private sector workers (unlike the federal Family and Medical Leave Act which is restricted to relatively large employers), and thus should in principle provide universal coverage. The authors use data from two surveys: the Golden Bear Omnibus survey, which investigated public attitudes about paid leave, public awareness of the state’s new paid family leave law, employees’ previous experience with family and medical leave, and employees’ expectations about future needs for leave; and the Survey of California...

Immigration, Union Density, and Brown-Collar Wage Penalties

Mon, 22 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Previous research focusing on the impact of immigration on native-born workers demonstrates that workers experience wage penalties when they are employed in local occupations with a large share of immigrants. Does unionization mediate such pay penalties? Lisa Catanzarite utilizes the 2000 5% Census Public Use Microdata Sample in conjunction with pooled unionization data from the 1998-2002 Current Population Surveys to investigate the impact of union density on pay penalties in brown-collar occupations (with overrepresentations of recent-immigrant Latinos). The results indicate that unionization, particularly in the private sector, significantly eases the downward pressure on wages in brown-collar fields for both native workers and earlier-immigrant Latinos, net of individual and occupational characteristics. The analyses focus on the greater Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Areas (California’s primary immigrant destinations) and also use data on immigrant-receiving Consolidated...

About the Contributors

Mon, 22 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000

List of contributors for the 2004 volume of The State of California Labor, an annual publication of the UC Institute for Labor and Employment.

Preface and Acknowledgments

Mon, 22 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Ruth Milkman summarizes the contents of the 2004 issue of The State of California Labor, an annual publication of the University of California Institute for Labor and Employment.

Upgrading California's Home Care Workforce: The Impact of Political Action and Unionization

Mon, 22 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Candace Howes examines the recent history of one of California’s rapidly growing occupations: home care. As the author’s analysis demonstrates, home care has been extensively transformed in recent years through large-scale unionization and coalition-based political action, which have led to major improvements in wages and benefits. Apart from providing many home care workers with better pay, the upgrading of this occupation has also improved the quality of care that clients receive, since higher wages make for lower turnover. The improved working and living conditions that result benefit caregivers and those they serve alike. The author’s empirical analysis has obvious ramifications for low-wage employment generally, particularly in the burgeoning health care and personal services sector.