California will have one of the toughest equal pay laws in the country in 2016

California took a major step this year toward closing the lingering wage gap between men and women, as Gov. Jerry Brown signed one of the toughest pay equity laws in the nation.

Women in California who work full time are paid substantially less — a median 84 cents for every dollar — than men, according to a U.S Census Bureau report this year.

“The inequities that have plagued our state and have burdened women forever are slowly being resolved with this kind of bill,” Brown said at a ceremony at Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park in the Bay Area city of Richmond.

The governor called the measure, which will give employees more grounds for challenging perceived discrimination, “a very important milestone.”

It is supported by the California Chamber of Commerce and most state Republican lawmakers. National women’s rights leaders said the legislation was a model for other states and for Congress, where similar efforts have been stalled by Republican opposition.

Businesses said they expected more lawsuits once the new rules take effect Jan. 1.

The sponsor of the bill was California State Senator Beth Jackson

Courts have interpreted current law to mean that male and female workers must hold exactly the same jobs to require equal pay, said state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), author of the legislation.

“Now they're going to have to value the work equally,” she said.

California and the federal government already have laws banning employers from paying women less than men for the same jobs. The new California Fair Pay Act broadens that prohibition by saying bosses cannot pay employees less than those of the opposite sex for “substantially similar work,” even if their titles are different or they work at different sites.

A female housekeeper who cleans hotel rooms, for example, may challenge higher wages paid to a male janitor who cleans the lobby and banquet halls, said Jackson. Similarly, a female grocery clerk could challenge a male clerk's higher wages at a store owned by the same employer but located a few miles away.

The new law also prohibits retaliation against employees who ask about or discuss wages paid to co-workers, and it clarifies their ability to claim retaliation.

On the employer side, those sued by workers would have to show that wage differences are due to factors other than sex, such as merit or seniority; that they are job-related and reasonable; and that they are not due to discrimination.

Workers who believe they have been discriminated against said Tuesday that the new law would help bolster future cases. Employers will now be “accountable to pay women fairly,” said Aileen Rizo, a math consultant for the Fresno County Office of Education who is suing the agency.

Rizo alleges in her federal lawsuit that a male colleague was paid $12,000 more a year for the same work, even though he was hired four years after she was and had less experience, education and seniority.

The new law will mean more employees taking more bosses to court, said J. Al Latham Jr., a labor law attorney and lecturer at the USC Gould School of Law.

“It is going to lead to lots more litigation, which further weakens the business climate in California,” he said.

Geoff DeBoskey, another labor lawyer, agreed, saying it was significant to change from requiring equal pay for equal work to mandating equal pay for substantially similar work, and that would drive some businesses out of California.

Employers will “move operations and grow elsewhere,” said DeBoskey, whose clients include Fortune 500 companies. “If an employer is going to build a new call center, they are just not going to build that in California.”

The new law is the strongest in the country, according to the National Partnership for Women & Families, a Washington-based nonprofit advocacy group for workplace fairness.

Actress Patricia Arquette, whose call for equal pay in her acceptance speech at February’s Academy Awards helped spur Jackson's legislation, hailed the new law as “a critical step toward ensuring that women in California are seen and valued as equals.”

Jennifer Reisch, legal director of the San Francisco group Equal Rights Advocates, said women, especially those of color and mothers, “continue to lose precious income to a pervasive, gender-based wage gap.”

Brown's signature on Jackson's bill “will make California’s equal pay law clearer, stronger and more effective,” she said.

Via Los Angeles Times, Chris Megerian and Patrick McGreevy 

http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-gov-brown-equal-pay-bill-20151006-story.html

U of R students study employment fairness for convicted criminals

When Manmit Dhami was in her sophomore year attending the University of Redlands she reluctantly took Jennifer Tilton’s Race and Criminal Justice class to satisfy an ethic studies requirement.

That class changed her.

“I feel so empowered now,” said Dhami, now a junior. “I feel like I’m a part of a community. I feel like what I’m doing matters. I’m changing people’s lives in positive ways.”

Dhami and the rest of her class spent last year researching implementation of Assembly Bill 218 — or “the Ban the Box initiative,” passed in July, 2014, which gives people convicted of a crime more access to public jobs from the city, county and state level.

But her classmates’ research found that the Inland area is not implementing the rule change. Some cities in Riverside and San Bernardino counties didn’t even know the law existed according to Tilton, who led the study.

They will present “report cards” at a town hall meeting, and launch the The IE Fair Chance Coalition today from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the San Bernardino Diocese, 1201 E. Highland Ave. in San Bernardino. The group is made up of U of R students and faculty and community leaders, including Time for Change Foundation, Riverside All of Us or None, Starting Over Inc., Center for Employment Opportunities, IE Concerned African American Churches, Inland Congregations United for Change, California Partnership and the ACLU of Southern California.

The U of R report that several human resource policies are not written or sufficiently detailed to guarantee fair or consistent evaluation of criminal records in the hiring process. They say application language often discourages people with criminal records from applying and does not clearly state a commitment to fair hiring.

Riverside County received the highest grade, with a B. Lake Elsinore, Fontana, Highland and San Bernardino County all received Ds. The grades measured the existing barriers to fair hiring and provided departments with a roadmap for change.

“Until you work in partnership with the community, they don’t understand substantial problems around them or understand how to actually change policies,” said Tilton. “They feel powerless. Connecting them with community leaders doing the changes they want to see is the first step.”

Junior Raquel Anakalea was one of the students who felt powerless.

“My dad has been in and out of prison my whole life,” said Anakalea. “I’m not close to him because he’s been in and out of my life.”

She was raised by her mom, aunt and grandmother. It was hard on them because he was unable to get employed because of his criminal background. Even now he isn’t able to help her pay for her tuition, books or housing.

“I have issues that most people on this campus just don’t have to face,” said Anakalea. “Jobs, that’s the biggest most obvious way to end the cycle of recidivism.”

Senior Jewel Patterson has lived in San Bernardino County her whole life and has members in her family who are unable to find good public jobs because of their criminal background. She was part of the first class to work on the project. She conducted interviews with people who had served time.

“We got stories from formerly incarcerated people,” said Patterson. “We wanted to put a face on the issue.”

The students spent two years researching HR departments. In addition to the interviews they called HR departments, followed up with elected officials poured through public policy documents and spent hours on phones with lawyers. Each of the women has been subsequently volunteering with nonprofits involved in criminal justice and launching IE Fair Chance Coalition to give a voice to people who have been discriminated against because of their criminal background.

This was Tilton’s goal all along, to connect students to issues affecting the community and get them to be agents of change.

“I wanted them to do some research useful in the community to understand how public policies played out in the Inland Empire,” said Tilton. “I’m so proud of the work they have done. They’re having a tangible positive impact in the community. The work they’re doing is giving HR departments a roadmap to better implement this law.”

Tilton also wanted to change stigmas around people with criminal records.

Dhami’s research focused on the city of San Bernardino. But that’s not the biggest impact the class had. Her older sister has been incarcerated twice. After her sister got out of jail her family treated her differently, and so did Dhami.

“Oh I totally had a stigma and that hurt my relationship with her. I was like, oh yeah she’s a criminal, she wasn’t my big sister anymore. These stigmas hurt people and hurt families. I reconnected with my sister. She saw the work I did on the campaign on Facebook and was proud.



“It’s become so much more than a class. The people who we worked with they had a positive impact on my life too.”

Los Angeles Record Change & Resource Fair

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2015

11:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Exposition Park

Los Angeles, CA 90037

Free Live Scans for Record Change Fair

Location:

Center for Living and Learning

14549 Archwood Street, #221

Van Nuys, CA 91405

Date:

August 29, 2015

Time:

1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Free Live Scans for Record Change Fair

Location:

Fred Brown Recovery Services

270 W. 14th Street

San Pedro, CA 90731

Date:

August 27, 2015

Time:

3:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Jerry Brown Signs Job Protection for Grocery Workers Bill

Assembly Bill 359, by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, was backed by labor unions and opposed by business interests. The California Chamber of Commerce included it in its annual list of “job killer” bills.

“The author and sponsors have committed to clarify that the law would not apply to a grocery store that has ceased operations for six months or more,” Brown wrote. “I look forward to receiving that fix before the end of this legislative session.” 

Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Monday requiring grocery store owners to retain employees for at least 90 days after a merger or buyout, handing a victory to labor unions in a closely watched bill.

In addition to preventing a grocery store owner from firing workers without cause during that 90-day period, the legislation requires the store’s new owner to consider offering those workers continued employment.

In a rare signing message, Brown, a Democrat, said it is not clear how the bill would apply to grocery stores that closed before being re-opened by a new owner.

UC raising minimum hourly wage to $15

The University of California will raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour over the next three years for all employees, including part-time and contract workers.

Under a plan unveiled Wednesday at the university’s Board of Regents meeting in San Francisco, mandated hourly pay will increase to $13 this October, then by another dollar over each of the next two years, for any employee hired to work at least 20 hours per week. That will put the university well above the state of California, where the rate is set to rise to $10 per hour next year.

The policy comes amid the national “Fight for $15” campaign, led by labor unions, that has seen major cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles hike their minimum wage well above state and federal levels. On the same day, a wage board in New York recommended an increase to $15 for the state’s fast-food workers, who have been at the forefront of the movement.

Vice President Joe Biden was also in Los Angeles to campaign for raising the minimum wage. Earlier this week, Los Angeles County followed the city’s lead and agreed to boost its hourly rate to $15 by 2020.

UC President Janet Napolitano, the former secretary of homeland security under President Barack Obama, said the raise was “the right thing to do for our workers and their families.”

“It’s the right thing to do to enhance the university’s leadership role,” she added, noting that UC is the first public university system in the country to set its minimum wage at $15.

The announcement came as regents considered a 3 percent raise for 21 senior administrators, including nine campus chancellors, which is expected to be approved Thursday.

UC estimates that the minimum wage change will affect about 3,200 hourly employees throughout the system, including custodial, food service and bookstore staff, lab assistants and student workers. The university employs more than 195,000 people throughout its 10 campuses, five medical centers and other locations.

By expanding the policy to include contractors, the impact will be felt even more broadly. New service contracts that the university enters into will include the minimum wage provision and other working-condition standards, addressing union complaints that some workers have been poorly treated by third-party companies.

“We wanted to plant the flag in the ground and say, ‘This is not acceptable,’ ” UC spokeswoman Dianne Klein said.

Though she could not provide an exact figure, Klein said the number of contract workers who make less than $15 per hour is “many times larger” than the approximately 3,200 university employees.

Praise for the plan immediately rolled in from top Democratic politicians, including U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a member of the regents. Both thanked UC on Twitter.

“The #FightFor15 has reached @UofCalifornia and I’m very glad that workers will move up to $15 within three years,” Newsom tweeted, urging California State University to do the same.

But Assembly Republican Leader Kristen Olsen worried that students would end up footing the bill for the pay raise.

“It is concerning that UC would implement this proposal just after spending an entire year arguing they do not have the funds necessary to keep tuition flat and enroll more California students,” she said in a statement.

She also slammed UC for extending the policy to private contractors: “The University should be teaching engineering, not spending student dollars to practice social engineering by limiting who campuses can do businesses with.”

Klein said the majority of affected employees work in auxiliary services or self-supporting enterprises such as the UC medical centers, which would pay for the minimum wage increase themselves. She said it will add an estimated $14 million per year to UC’s approximately $12.6 billion payroll, though the university anticipates that contractors will pass on additional costs.

“The bulk of this is non-state funded,” she said. “It is not as though we are taking the money we assume we are getting from the state and giving it to minimum wage workers.”

Early reaction from employees was mixed.

AFSCME Local 3299, which represents about 23,000 custodians, cooks, gardeners and other workers, called the plan a “marginal step forward.”

“UC recognizes that there is a problem at the university about poverty wages – the fact that people are working at the university and not making enough to live on,” union President Kathryn Lybarger said. “Doing this doesn’t actually solve the problem.”

She said the university should hire all of its lowest-level employees so that they can earn a retirement and health benefits, rather than outsourcing many of them to temporary contracts that create a “permanent underclass” of workers.

One UC Irvine professor expressed concerns on Twitter that he would have to cut the number of student researchers in his lab if his grants did not cover the pay raise.

Lawmakers are currently considering a bill that would boost California’s minimum hourly rate to $13 by 2017. It passed the state Senate last month and is now working its way through the Assembly.


By: Alexei Koseff

Via: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article28291927.html

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article28291927.html#storylink=cpy

Support El Super Grocery Store Workers!

Come out and support!

El Super

24899 Alessandro Blvd.

Moreno Valley, CA 

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

10:00 a.m.

Contact: Yesenia Gonzalez

714-470-5996

yesenia@ufcw1167.org

Needed: Modern-Day Rosie the Riveters

Ami Rasmussen, interior assembly technician. Photo: Deanne Fitzmaurice

By Surnia Khan, CEO of the Women's Foundation of California

Some of us remember Norman Rockwell's Rosie the Riveter, her goggles, her uncanny biceps, the larger-than-life rivet gun in her lap. Most of us, however, remember a different Rosie, her red bandana, her clenched fist and her in-your-face, flexed bicep.

Though both Rosies were a propaganda tool created during WWII to recruit women to work, one thing is undeniable: these Rosies revolutionized the U.S. workforce. Between 1940 and 1945, six million women entered the workforce and, as a result, forever changed the course of our economy, politics and nation.

Today, women comprise 47 percent of our workforce and our numbers are growing. In addition to being primary caretakers for our families, women are becoming primary income-earners, too. According to the Pew Research Center, women are sole or primary breadwinners in more than 40 percent of our households. And if we want women and our families to thrive, we need to dramatically change our workforce policies and workplace conditions.

This month we have a unique opportunity to showcase how women are a critical part of our workforce and economy. Women Can Build: Re-envisioning Rosie is a photography exhibit that celebrates modern-day Rosie the Riveters and invites Los Angelenos, policymakers and the businesses community to work together to give women equal opportunities in the manufacturing industry.

The exhibit was created by Jobs to Move America to accompany a sobering study by the USC's Program for Environmental and Regional Equity.

The study titled "#WomenCanBuild: Including Women in the Resurgence of Good U.S. Manufacturing Jobs" finds that women comprise just 30 percent of the manufacturing industry workforce and that the majority are employed in lower-paying, clerical positions instead of middle class-sustaining jobs.

Furthermore, the study finds that the pay disparity is significant in the manufacturing industry: women make just 74 cents for every dollar men make.

This research is important because manufacturing jobs—and in particular transportation equipment manufacturing jobs—are poised to grow in California due to significant federal and local investments in mass transit systems, including bus and rail. In places like Los Angeles County, voters are taxing themselves to build out their transportation systems. And then there's the voter-approved, albeit highly controversial, California's high-speed rail system and all the jobs that would be needed to build it.

We know that the manufacturing industry is poised to expand and we must ensure that women are poised to enter these new jobs that will pay a living wage.

But if we look at the employment data over the last five years, the outlook is less than encouraging. Post-Great Recession, women entered low-wage and part-time jobs in great numbers and continue to be underemployed. Two-thirds of all minimum wage workers are women and nearly one in five women in California lives in poverty.

The study and the exhibit point out the elephant in the room: California must create opportunities for women to equitably participate in this manufacturing boom—and our economy.

If women are to enter traditionally male-dominated industries like manufacturing, we need to recognize and remove barriers currently in their way. One of the barriers is psychological -- we need to help women see that they can do manufacturing jobs, the way the propaganda machine of the 1940s showed women they could build planes and tanks. Hence the exhibit.

"Women might think they can't lift anything heavy, but they'd be surprised that they can do this—better than half the guys…I want to prove to my girls that they can do anything they put their minds to and commit to. I want to lead by example, to them and to other women," said Ami Rasmussen, US Army veteran, a mother of two teenage daughters and one of the fifteen Rosies featured in the exhibit.

In addition to showing women that they can indeed build as well as men, we must remove the biased, outdated and unresponsive public policies that make it difficult for women to enter male-dominated (and traditionally higher-paying) industries in the first place.

We need to find policy solutions to issues such as unequal pay for equal work, lack of affordable, reliable childcare, unregulated scheduling and lack of paid family and sick leave. A groundbreaking coalition of California women's rights and poverty advocates is tackling many of these important policy challenges at this very moment and the Women's Foundation of California is proud to be one of the members.

We hope more women, especially young women, will be motivated to enter these traditionally male jobs and earn middle class, family-supporting wages.

via: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/surina-khan/needed-modernday-rosie-the-riveters_b_7337312.html

When given a chance to live a "normal," crime free life...

Learning about Prop 47 and being a part of Time for Change Foundation’s Get Out the Vote campaign, has made my understanding of my role in the community a whole lot clearer. Since being released from prison in September 2014, I have been engaged in many activities that have given me so much insight and knowledge that benefits me and others who are going through the same struggles that I am facing.

I came to Time for Change Foundation in October 2014 on parole, not knowing that in less than 6 months I would have gained so much knowledge, understanding, and accomplishments. I recently attended the Future of Elections 2015 Conference in Sacramento to learn a broader perspective of how we, the community, can make a difference and achieve greater outcomes on future elections.

I was able to get a better understanding on how and why it is so important to vote and be up to speed on campaigns, elected officials, bills and laws, and who the players are in our community. So even though I am not able to vote, being that I am on parole, I still feel that it is my responsibility to be sure that those around me are up to date with information and are voting in California Elections. Also reaching out to the public by phone banking, door to door flyers, to be sure that the community is registered to vote and helping them locate their voting polls so they can go vote.

As a repetitive felon it feels impossible to find a well paying job and even harder to keep one that will provide for me and my family. So Prop 47 gives me hope that I, and others who are going through the same situation,  can live “normal” crime free lives with attained employment. I am so grateful for and inspired from all the useful information that I am now aware of.

                                                                                                              
DeeLysa Harper 
February 24,2015

Ruthie's Experience

Last week I joined some of the ladies at Time for Change Foundation to speak to criminal justice students at the University of Redlands. I had a great time sharing my experience with the students. Not only was I able to provide them with useful information, but I was inspired and learned new and useful information. I was motivated to keep trying, to not give up. Searching for a job after incarceration has been really hard, and doing so with a felony seems impossible. My felony is looked at and judged, which leads to me never getting a call back, but with this experience I am encouraged and want to someday help others with helping themselves; what I am doing now for myself. 

I participated in a panel where we discussed and learned more about AB 218 Law, Banning the Box on employment applications and how to be sure that any employers are in compliance with the law. It ensures that public employers provides a chance to hire on individuals that qualify for the position and eliminates discrimination due to their past mistakes.

We also discussed Prop 47, which reclassifies 6 petty crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. As a group, we talked about the barriers of finding employment as a felon, or just having a criminal background in general.

I am thankful to be a part of something so important and I cannot wait for the next opportunity to share with others what it is like for us. I am learning how to use my voice and it feels so empowering!

Ruthie Roys

February 23, 2015   

The President Proposes to Make Community College Free for Responsible Students for 2 Years

David Hudson

January 08, 2015 
06:16 PM EST

This month, the President unveiled a new proposal: Make two years of community college free for responsible students across America.

In our growing global economy, Americans need to have more knowledge and more skills to compete -- by 2020, an estimated 35 percent of job openings will require at least a bachelor's degree, and 30 percent will require some college or an associate's degree. Students should be able to get the knowledge and the skills they need without taking on decades' worth of student debt.

The numbers:

If all 50 states choose to implement the President's new community college proposal, it could:
Save a full-time community college student $3,800 in tuition per year on average
Benefit roughly 9 million students each year

Under President Obama's new proposal, students would be able to earn the first half of a bachelor's degree, or earn the technical skills needed in the workforce -- all at no cost to them.

The requirements:

What students have to do: Students must attend community college at least half-time, maintain a 2.5 GPA, and make steady progress toward completing their program.
What community colleges have to do: Community colleges will be expected to offer programs that are either 1) academic programs that fully transfer credits to local public four-year colleges and universities, or 2) occupational training programs with high graduation rates and lead to in-demand degrees and certificates. Community colleges must also adopt promising and evidence-based institutional reforms to improve student outcomes.
What the federal government has to do: Federal funding will cover three-quarters of the average cost of community college. Participating states will be expected to contribute the remaining funds necessary to eliminate the tuition for eligible students.

Expanding technical training programs:

President Obama also proposed the new American Technical Training Fund, which will expand innovative, high-quality technical training programs across the country. Specifically, the fund will award programs that:

• Have strong employer partnerships and include work-based learning opportunities
• Provide accelerated training
• Accommodate part-time work

Read the full fact sheet of the President's proposal. 

via: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/01/08/president-proposes-make-community-college-free-responsible-students-2-years

A Fair Chance

Our nation is finally getting “smart on crime” after decades of policies like the War on Drugs. Today, we’re a nation where almost one in three adults—that’s 70 million people—has an arrest or conviction record.

That record has become a scarlet letter for job-seekers who can’t even get their foot in the door for an interview. Local communities have responded by adopting fair-chance hiring laws to ensure that people with records aren’t locked out of employment.

The movement is growing fast. More than 100 cities, counties, and states have adopted fair-chance hiring policies—42 in the past year alone. And that’s paving the way for action at the federal level. Here's how you can help.

Please SIGN THIS PETITION urging President Obama to take executive action to create a federal fair-chance hiring policy that covers federal agencies and contractors. There’s strong bipartisan support for opening up opportunity for millions of Americans unfairly shut out from the job market.

NELP’s new report, Advancing a Federal Fair-Chance Hiring Agenda, makes the case for reform and lays out a detailed plan. Read more about it in the Washington Post.

Over the coming months, NELP and our partners in this effort, All of Us or None and the PICO National Network, will be working to build pressure for presidential executive action, so that everyone has a fair chance at federal agency and contractor jobs. Thanks for your support!

—Maurice, Michelle, and the NELP team

California's employment picture: Good news and bad news

The good news is that with a recent surge of employment, California has regained virtually all of the million-plus jobs it lost during what many call the Great Recession.

The Employment Development Department reported Friday that California's unemployment rate, which hit a high of 12.4 percent in 2010, dropped to 8 percent in February. California had added 336,000 non-agricultural jobs in the previous 12 months.

The bad news is that despite regaining those lost jobs, California still has one of the nation's highest jobless rates, surpassed by only a handful of other states, and it's still well above the national average of 6.7 percent.

How can that be?

It's because over more than seven years of economic decline and recovery, California's population has grown and therefore so has its potential workforce, and the unemployment rate is the percentage of thelabor force that doesn't have jobs.

California's lowest unemployment rate in recent history was 4.8 percent for a few months in late 2006, when about 850,000 of the state's 17.8 million available workers were unemployed.

In the 7-1/2 years since then, California's labor force has grown by 800,000-plus to 18.6 million but the state has only 193,000 more people employed, leaving 640,000 more Californians without jobs than there were in 2006. Hence, with 1.5 million unemployed, the state has a much-higher unemployment rate now than it did then.

Two other factors also round out California's employment picture, and undercut somewhat the positive news of recent job gains.

One is labor force participation - the percentage of Californians of working age who either are working or seeking work. That's just 62.2 percent, the lowest rate in more than three decades, according to EDD. Were more Californians between the ages of 16 and 64 to join the labor force and seek work, the state's unemployment rate would be higher.

The second is what the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics calls "U-6" - the percentage of the labor force that's not only unemployed, but involuntarily working part-time or "marginally attached" to the labor force. BLS calls it "labor underutilization."

For 2013, California had the nation's second highest U-6 rate, 17.3 percent. And in Los Angeles County,which has more than a quarter of the state's population, it was 19.8 percent.

PHOTO: A group meets during a workshop for unemployed people at a community center in Corona, Calif., Aug. 7, 2012. The New York Times/Monica Almeida

Categories: California by the Numbers

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2014/03/californias-employment-picture-good-news-and-bad-news.html#storylink=cpy

Governor Brown, put money into California's communities and stop warehousing humans!

My name is Nicole and I am living in a homeless shelter provided by Time For Change Foundation.  This was the only option available to me when I left prison December 3^rd after serving 17 years, with $200 in my pocket and the clothes on my back. 

Although I had employment skills prior to my incarceration and gained more during over the years in prison, I do not qualify for monetary assistance.  If it weren’t for programs like Time For Change Foundation, I would be living on the street, which would violate my parole and I would become a statistic of recidivism. 

Without a job, I am living at the poverty level.  I am here to raise my voice to call on Governor Brown to build a road out of poverty in California for myself and the 8.7 million Californian’s.

Until very recently I was part of the overcrowding in the California prison system.  I felt firsthand the impact of Governor Brown’s efforts to reduce the prison population and his repeated failures to follow the letter and the intent of the numerous federal court orders to reduce the prison population.  

Time and again Governor Brown has suggested the solution of building more prisons, spending more money outsourcing inmates and attempting to warehouse human beings instead of looking at the cost effectiveness, both financially and on a human level, of spending that money on rehabilitation instead.

California does not need more prisons.  California does not need to ship its prisoners out to other states.  California needs to provide avenues not only for reintegration following incarceration but for survival to avoid incarceration in the first place.  

Putting the money he seeks to allocate to building more prisons, back into the California communities, will ultimately save the State money and improve the lives of Californians.  Reallocating funds to restorations to Medi-Cal, childcare, CalWORKs, SSI and IHSS will accomplish these goals.

It is my sincere hope that Governor Brown will look at the whole picture, the long range goals, the potential in many people who are currently living below the poverty level and make some sweeping changes to the proposed budget to really invest in the people of California and their unlimited capacity to thrive if given just a little assistance.

Nicole La FontaineTime for Change Foundation

Push to ban crime box on job applications expands

San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim wants to make this question virtually obsolete on job applications in San Francisco: Have you been convicted of a crime?

Kim is proposing to expand the city's existing ban by having it include most private employers, publicly funded housing providers and city contractors.

Ten states and more than 50 cities have adopted some version of "ban the box," and a growing number of private employers are also jumping on board - earlier this year, Target announced it would strip the question from its applications. The federal government recommends that step as a best practice for all employers.

In a nation where an estimated 65 million people have a criminal history - 7 million in California alone - supporters see the proposal, dubbed the Fair Chance ordinance, as a win for not only former offenders but also society at large.

San Francisco has banned most city agencies from asking that hiring question since 2006. This year, the state of California did the same.

Movement began here

"This started in San Francisco," said Jesse Stout, policy director for the nonprofit Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, whose All of Us or None campaign has helped push "ban the box" laws across the country.

"Now that we've banned the box for public employment in so many places, we are back to fight to expand this to include private employment and public housing. ... If we want our communities to be safe, that requires everyone having a fair shot at the necessities of life like housing and employment."

The question still gets asked on applications for jobs, such as law enforcement, where a criminal history is relevant, and those potential employers are not barred from inquiring; they may simply reserve that question for later in the hiring process.

The latest San Francisco proposal will be introduced Tuesday by Kim, along with Supervisor Malia Cohen, whose districts are home to the highest number of former offenders in the city. Their offices have worked alongside business leaders for 11 months to craft the proposal.

Getting past mistakes

"There's a growing awareness that it makes no sense to keep people out of job opportunities just because of a mistake in their past," said Michelle Natividad Rodriguez, a staff attorney with the National Employment Law Project, which works for employment rights of lower-wage workers.

"Why do we want people with a record employed? It leads to a stronger economy, it helps public safety. ... People get disillusioned if they are turned down again and again for something they did 10 years ago," she said. "All the expectations around (rehabilitation) are that you need to get a job, make sure you support your family - of course people want to do that, but if they are not even given a chance to interview, how do you get there?"

A forgotten arrest

Donel Fuller, a Tenderloin resident, is wondering the same thing. Fuller was fired from a janitorial job this year after his employer discovered that he had failed to note a 1974 arrest for misdemeanor trespassing on his job application - even though he had noted his actual convictions, including felony welfare fraud.

"I was surprised when I got the call," said Fuller, a soft-spoken man. "I didn't even remember that (arrest). ... I put all the most recent things I remembered."

He has been looking for work ever since and believes his criminal past is the reason he can't find work. The criminal history question, said Mathew Martenyi, a former lawyer who spent three years in federal prison on a marijuana conviction, creates a conundrum for ex-offenders.

"If you are qualified for a job, and can do a job, you don't want to lie, but if you don't, there's no assurance you can get the job. What the ordinance is trying to do is say, 'Let's all be up front,' " said Martenyi, an organizer with All of Us or None. "We're not asking for anything other than to be judged by our skill set, experience and qualifications."

Employers who have hired former offenders say they are often the hardest-working, most honest employees.

"My first company was a parking business, and they were the best people I ever employed," said William Ortiz-Cartagena, who sits on the city's Small Business Commission. "It's funny, (valet) parking has a stigma, that something is always going to get stolen, and our reputation was immaculate. That made me feel good."

Ortiz-Cartagena knows both sides: He spent more than two years in federal prison on drug charges as a teenager but, after his release, got a chance from Joie de Vivre Hotels founderChip Conley. He started as a valet and worked his way up into management, then went on to found numerous businesses.

He was one of a number of business leaders who worked with Kim to ensure that her proposal wouldn't be too big of a burden on businesses.

Ordinance evolves

Kim said the ordinance has changed significantly from its original version because of that input. It now will only apply to those with 20 or more employees, it will allow businesses to conduct background checks after a live interview instead of after a conditional offer of employment, and it does not allow applicants to sue.

Ultimately, the legislation will allow applicants to at least explain their past and what they've done to overcome it, said Meredith Desautels, a staff attorney at the Lawyers'Committee for Civil Rights, which runs a monthly clinic in the Fillmore to assist people who have a criminal history find housing and jobs.

The rise of online applications has made that nearly impossible, she said.

"As soon as they check that box and hit 'next,' it says, 'Thanks, you won't be considered.' Back in the day, you could say, 'Let's discuss this,' but if it's online, there's no chance," she said. "Once there's a box on an application, it closes doors in ways that don't make sense."

Marisa Lagos is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: mlagos@sfchronicle.comTwitter: @mlagos

Victory! California adopts Ban the Box - A Message from Dorsey Nunn

The signing of AB 218, the Fair Chance Employment Act, by Governor Brown creates enormous potential for California, formerly incarcerated people, and the community as a whole.  Now people with records will have a better chance to become employed, and thus to sustain themselves, their families, and contribute to their larger community.

Criminal background checks undermine fair hiring practices and discriminate against a class of people solely based on prior conviction history. The new law prohibits initial inquiry about convictions on job applications for state agencies and local government jobs, postponing any background check until later in the hiring process.

Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and All of Us or None have been on a march to secure the full restoration of the civil and human rights of formerly incarcerated people for approximately 10 years. Our dedication to this mission is why we have been fighting to end structural discrimination in hiring and housing, represented by the question, “Have you been convicted...”

Over 10 years ago, All of Us or None initiated our Ban The Box campaign, which aims to prohibit employers, housing providers, and other quality-of-life providers from discriminating against people with records. Now thousands of individuals and hundreds of organizations, service providers, and elected officials around the country have joined in the campaign for fair chances in employment.

We are grateful for everyone’s contribution no matter how large or small. We want to thank Governor Brown for signing AB 218, and Assemblymember Dickinson for authoring it and being a champion for the bill. Most of all we appreciate the hard work and tireless efforts of our co-sponsors, the National Employment Law Project and PICO California. With them, we mobilized people all over the nation to support an end to discrimination based on prior records, and to opening up employment opportunities in California for people with past convictions. This new law is a tremendous victory for all of us.

Real public safety and public health means that everyone has access to sustainable employment, affordable housing, and a productive quality of life absent of any forms of discrimination.

The signing of AB 218 is one step towards equality. We now need to prohibit others, including private companies and contractors, from legally eliminating people with conviction histories from job opportunities. We need to create more meaningful and accessible jobs so that people returning to our communities can have a legitimate way to support themselves, and contribute to our society as a whole.

In pursuit of justice,

Dorsey Nunn
Executive Director

Jerry Brown urges OK of amended bill to raise minimum wage

Gov. Jerry Brown said Wednesday that he supports raising the minimum wage in California to $10 an hour, urging lawmakers to approve a bill that was amended Wednesday and awaits action in the Senate.

The Democratic governor's announcement came after Assembly Bill 10, by Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, was amended to raise the minimum hourly wage to $10 sooner than previously proposed.

The measure would raise the minimum hourly wage from $8 to $9 on July 1, 2014, and then to $10 on Jan. 1, 2016. Under an earlier version of the bill, the minimum hourly wage would not have reached $10 until 2018.

"The minimum wage has not kept pace with rising costs," Brown said in a statement. "This legislation is overdue and will help families that are struggling in this harsh economy."

The legislation is pending in the Senate as lawmakers near the end of session this week. Brown was joined by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez, D-Los Angeles, in supporting the bill.

"For millions of California's hard-working minimum wage employees, a few extra dollars a week can make a huge difference to help them provide for their families," Steinberg said in a statement.

The California Chamber of Commerce has included the bill in its annual list of "job killers," saying it would unfairly increase costs on employers.

Alejo said today that the bill is a "modest measure," noting that he agreed to remove an automatic cost-of-living escalator.

"We should have a statewide minimum wage that's fair, that's reasonable and that gives workers the dignity of at least being able to pay their bills and provide for their families with their minimum wage salary," he said.

Brown's wading in on the minimum wage issue is the second time in two days that he has commented on pending action in the Legislature, a rarity for for the governor. On Tuesday, he announced his opposition to a measure to rename part of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge for former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown.

The Bee's Jeremy B. White contributed to this report.

PHOTO: Gov. Jerry Brown speaks to reporters at a news conference at the Capitol on Sept. 9, 2013. The Sacramento Bee/Hector Amezcua

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/09/jerry-brown-urges-action-on-bill-to-raise-minimum-wage.html#storylink=cpy