Maintain Poverty Wages & Limited Workers' Rights

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Over the past 20+ years, there have been many important fights to address poverty wages, expand workers’ rights, and protect the rights of labor unions in California. The leading opponents of economic justice have been a small group of corporate advocacy groups that have repeatedly sought to defeat efforts to implement livable wages and address severe income inequality.

Below are some of the key bills and ballot measures that have shaped policy in this area. Click on them to learn more about what they did, or could have done, and who supported and opposed them.

2005

This ballot measure was designed to limit the political influence of labor unions by requiring that they obtain written consent from employees before using union dues for political contributions.

Spending in Support

$101.5M

Spending in Opposition

$105.3M

Results

Defeated 53%/47%

Supporters

Spent $101.5 million, with the largest supporter being Governor Schwarzenegger ($13.5 million) and other prominent supporters including the following:

California Retailers Association

$504K

Christy Walton (of the Walton Family)

$434K

California Farm Bureau

$348K

California Building Industry Association

$343K

California Restaurant Association

$334K

Chevron

$319K

Allergan (now AbbVie)

$269K

Kilroy Realty

$217K

Bank of America

$177K

ConocoPhillips

$167K

Edison International (including Southern California Edison)

$160K

California Chamber of Commerce

$149K

Michael Hayde

$146K

California Business Roundtable

$130K

Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association

$130K

AT&T

$111K

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America also spent $5.6 million on “Citizens for Paycheck Protection,” a key committee supporting the ballot measure.

Opponents

Spent $105.3 million, with the largest spenders being:

California Teachers Association

$22.2M

California State Council of SEIU

$18.0M

Alliance for a Better California

$17.6M

Read more about this

2005-06

This bill set the minimum wage at $7.50 per hour as of January 1, 2007 and $8.00 per hour as of January 1, 2008.

2007-08

This bill would have required that employers provide paid sick days to employees who work for seven or more days in a calendar year.

2009-10

This bill would have required that employers provide paid sick days to employees who work for seven or more days in a calendar year.

2011-12

This bill would have increased the state’s minimum wage from $8.00 per hour to $8.50 per hour and required the minimum wage to automatically adjust annually based on the California Consumer Price Index (CPI).

2012

This ballot measure was designed to limit the political influence of labor unions by banning political contributions from payroll-deducted funds.

2013-14

This bill increased the minimum wage, on and after July 1, 2014, to not less than $9 per hour and on and after January 1, 2016, to not less than $10 per hour.

2013-14

This bill sought to increase the minimum wage to $13.00 per hour by 2017 and adjust annually based on inflation starting in 2018.

2013-14

This bill, the “Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014,” required employers to provide paid sick days to employees who work 30 or more days within a year from commencement of employment.

2015-16

This bill created a schedule for a phased increase in the minimum wage from $10.50/hour to $15/hour over seven years, and required the minimum wage to be adjusted for inflation thereafter.

2020

This ballot measure allowed companies to classify rideshare and delivery drivers as independent contractors and thus deprive them of labor protections such as paid sick leave, workers’ compensation, and unemployment benefits.

2023-24

This bill established the Fast Food Council for the purpose of establishing minimum standards on wages, working hours, and other working conditions of fast food restaurant workers.

2022-Now

This organization was developed to prevent the implementation of the FAST Recovery Act (see above) and fight increases in the minimum wage for fast food workers (see below).

2023-24

This bill amended the FAST Recovery Act and, among other changes, established a $20/hour minimum wage for fast food workers as of January 1, 2024.

2023-24

This bill increased the number of paid sick days from three to five, increased the cap that employers can place on paid sick days, increased the number of paid sick days an employee can roll over to the next year, and extended procedural and anti-retaliation provisions in existing paid sick leave law.

2024

This ballot initiative would have increased the state minimum wage to $18/hour by 2026 and thereafter adjusted the rate annually by increases to the cost of living.

Where are we now?

Because of the strength of the labor movement in California, there have been numerous significant victories over the past 20 years. Yet they have faced substantial opposition at every step from corporate advocacy groups and other oligarchs. Plus, these organizations’ efforts to fight these advances have only strengthened over time. Thus, not only has this opposition caused substantial harm in delaying many reforms, their continued efforts to reduce wages and limit workers’ rights threaten the gains that have been made.

Moreover, in large part because of the consistent opposition from California’s oligarchs, there continue to be significant economic justice concerns across the state, including:

In 2023, about 6.4 million Californians were living in poverty, and over 1/3 of Californians (13.2 million people) were poor or near poor (Public Policy Institute of California).
1.5 million California workers aged 25–64 (9.8%) were living in poverty (Public Policy Institute of California).
California also ranks 48th out of 50 states in income inequality between families at the top of the income distribution—the 90th percentile—and families at the 10th percentile (Public Policy Institute of California).

Where are we now? Find out