Promoting Income Security and Employment
California is the sixth largest economy in the world, but the state has high wage inequality and high poverty, with significant disparities by geography, education, and ethnicity. Workforce development programs and unemployment insurance benefits are two critically important resources for workers in California. In recent years state policymakers have also enacted increases in minimum wages and a state Earned Income Tax Credit. Some cities have even begun experimenting with universal basic income. Understanding the impacts of such policies is of first-order importance for the state as well as the rest of the nation.
The California Policy Lab provides expertise in labor economics and technical capacity in rigorous research design and data analysis to help our state, county, and local agency partners understand the far-reaching impacts of such policies and leverage these findings to inform and improve efforts.
