Institute for Research on Labor and Employment

The low-wage survey was designed to assess wages, hours, working conditions, and labor law violations in low-wage industries along the South Coast, especially those linked to the tourist, hospitality, and retail trade sectors of the local economy. In early 2014 the Santa Barbara office of California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. (CRLA) first proposed the survey as part of its very recent effort to more effectively serve those working in the urban service economy.  Although unemployment in Santa Barbara has dropped to just 4 percent and most low wage workers in the survey benefit from something close to a 40 hour work week, wages seem not to have responded to these demand-side pressures: they are stagnant, little higher than for similar occupations in California as a whole. Various forms of “wage theft,” illegal employer behavior involving overtime pay, rest breaks, and other mandated benefits and standards, have reached epidemic proportions, especially for undocumented workers.

Today’s child care system is a patchwork of various public and private local, state and federally-funded programs – one that ultimately leaves low-wage parents and their children with the illusion of choice. California’s more than 33,000 family child care providers have been essential to helping low-wage parents navigate the child care system – and more recently, have come together with these families under the banner of Raising California Together to wake policymakers and the public to the need for new solutions to this crisis of care.1 Bridging the experiences of low-wage parents with those of family child care providers that offer round-the-clock care to working families, often for below minimum wages, we can better understand the role child care and labor policy plays in closing the educational and economic achievement gaps plaguing California’s current and future workforce.

Announced by President Obama in June 2012, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program offers eligible undocumented youth and young adults a reprieve from deportation and temporary work authorization. This study assesses DACA’s impacts on the educational and socioeconomic trajectories and health and wellbeing of young adults in Southern California, comparing DACA recipients with undocumented youth who do not have DACA status. The study took place 2.5 years after DACA’s initiation, with the purpose of exploring the longer-term impacts of the program. Findings suggest that existing policies related to health, education, employment, and immigration may not go far enough in meeting the needs of immigrant youth.

In 2013, the California Legislature passed and Governor Brown signed into law Assembly Bill 241 which established a bill of rights for domestic workers in the state of California. The enactment of Domestic Worker Bill of Rights (DWBOR) in California is part of the general diffusion of these policies across states. The report surveys DWBORs in U.S. states and Western European countries. Based on a review of the enforcement mechanisms in DWBOR legislation, the report concludes enforcement is vexed because it depends on low-waged workers themselves to initiate complaints without any guarantee of speedy redress and the risk of retaliation against workers. Since the enforcement mechanisms reflect structures of antagonism between domestic workers and their employers, civil organizations and state agencies play an important role in ensuring worker complaints are properly expedited and adjudicated in accordance with state labor standards.

On April 28, 1971, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) came into being. While some states had laws and agencies in place to regulate certain workplace health and safety hazards, the establishment of OSHA following passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act meant the federal government was able to intervene for the first time to regulate workplace health and safety conditions and protect workers. From its inception, the agency has been the focus of considerable political controversy. Virtually the only point on which both supporters and detractors are likely to agree is that the agency has had a profound impact on the American workplace.

As of 2014, there were approximately 11 million undocumented people living in the United States and an estimated 200,000 to 225,000 undocumented students enrolled in college. Nationally, undocumented students are significantly less likely than U.S. born citizens to complete high school and enroll in postsecondary education. This brief will illustrate the need for greater resources and engagement on social equity and immigrant rights issues. It also highlights the role that government, community-based organizations, educational institutions, and foundations can play in removing barriers to postsecondary success for undocumented students, especially for those living in hostile environments.

Undocumented students face a multitude of barriers when pursuing highereducation. This report examines what universities can do to promote theeducational equity of undocumented students. We focus on the Universityof California system, nine undergraduate educational institutions thathave supportive institutional policies and are located in a state that offersaccess to in-state tuition and state-funded financial aid. Drawing on focusgroups and interviews with 214 undocumented University of Californiaundergraduate students and an original survey with 508 respondents, weoutline how these educational institutions have successfully closed someresource gaps by creating undocumented student programs. We thenexplore four persisting barriers: financial need, academic distraction, mentalhealth, and limited postgraduate preparation. We end by outlining policyrecommendations.

This brief examines how organized labor is addressed within Social Studies standards in the U.S. and Canada, tracking how the social and political perception of unions and labor history influences how they are referenced within curricular content standards. The authors use this analysis to explore how state and provincial governments conceive of organized labor, what is being taught with regard to the same, and where strategic action might be necessary to help shape future narratives of the place and value of labor in the high school curriculum.

From the beginning of moving pictures in the 1890s, when women workers were captured on film leaving the filmmaker’s own factory, to the neoliberal reality of work captured in the 2014 Sundance hit, The Overnighters, documentary films have revealed obscured histories and events and chronicled the struggles and changes that workers, unions, and the U.S. economy have experienced over the last hundred-plus years. These films have made an important contribution to the public's knowledge and understanding of labor, have sought to intervene in the exploitation of workers, and provided compelling tools for new forms of organizing

Dismantling Disparity: Breaking Barriers to Employment explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded the systemic discrimination Black workers have long faced. From March to December of 2020, 84% of the Black labor force in California filed for unemployment. Institutionalized racism leads to Black people being overrepresented in incarcerated and homeless populations and at risk for a number of health and educational disparities. These factors create economic insecurity and barriers to employment that are difficult to overcome without strategic support.The California Workforce Development Board’s (CWDB) Breaking Barriers to Employment Initiative aims to create grant programs that ensure that individuals are equipped with skills training and educational services that will reduce barriers to employment. Authors note the need for state and federal funding allocated to workforce development prioritize addressing the barriers that impact many Black workers.