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

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Senate passes minimum wage boost for California

As labor unions lead a nationwide push for a higher minimum wage, the California Senate on Monday approved raising the state’s required hourly rate to $11 in 2016 and $13 in 2017.

Under Senate Bill 3, which passed by a vote of 23-15, California’s minimum wage would also begin increasing annually in 2019 based on inflation. The measure heads next to the Assembly.

“The president of the United States has defined income inequality as the defining challenge of our time,” said Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who authored the measure. “Wages are growing at the slowest rate relative to corporate profits in the history of the United States of America.

“We must do more to address this, and we can.”

Leno pursued a similar minimum wage increase last year that passed the Senate but failed in an Assembly committee.

Since then, several major cities have raised their wage floor, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, which will both reach $15 per hour in the next few years. After joining striking fast-food workers in protest, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said last November he would also explore raising the city’s minimum wage above California’s $9-per-hour rate.

Introducing SB 3, Leno noted that a minimum wage of $13 per hour would equate to about $26,000 per year, just above the federal poverty line. He tried to appeal to Senate Republicans, making the argument that higher wages would lead to greater consumer spending and drive the economy.

“There are thought leaders on the conservative right who support increasing the minimum wage,” Leno said. “We taxpayers subsidize employers who pay sub-poverty wages,” because those workers get public assistance for housing, food and health care.

None were convinced, and they were joined by Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, in voting no on the bill.

“It’s a capitalistic society,” said Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa. “We need to honor the work of those that are creating the jobs, that are paying the taxes ... With a minimum wage increase, you are attacking businesspeople who are subsidizing this state and this nation.”

The California Chamber of Commerce placed SB 3 high on its annual list of “job killers,” bills that the powerful business lobby argues would have a negative economic impact on the state, and their argument was echoed during Monday’s debate.

“Let’s work together to find real solutions to create jobs and lift people out of poverty,” said Sen. Jeff Stone, R-Temecula, “not kill jobs, as this measure would unfortunately do.”

Two other moderate Democrats – Sens. Steve Glazer of Orinda and Cathleen Galgiani of Stockton – left the room during the vote. But the remainder of the caucus carried the bill, speaking passionately about the difficulty that many workers face in supporting their families on low wages.

“There is not honor in going out and working hard and then you got to go beg for” help, said Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Los Angeles. “When you get out there and get a job, you should have enough money to feed your family. You should have enough money to pay for the roof over your head and decent conditions.”

“The problem is, we want to pick and choose the work that we value,” added Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, the measure’s co-author. “All work has value.”

Via: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article22841253.html#storylink=cpy

Los Angeles Lifts Its Minimum Wage to $15 Per Hour

LOS ANGELES — The nation’s second-largest city voted Tuesday to increase its minimum wage from $9 an hour to $15 an hour by 2020, in what is perhaps the most significant victory so far for labor groups and their allies who are engaged in a national push to raise the minimum wage.

The increase, which the City Council passed in a 14-to-1 vote, comes as workers across the country are rallying for higher wages and several large companies, including Facebook and Walmart, have moved to raise their lowest wages. Several other cities, including San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle and Oakland, Calif., have already approved increases, and dozens more are considering doing the same. In 2014, a number of Republican-leaning states like Alaska and South Dakota also raised their state-level minimum wages by ballot initiative.

The effect is likely to be particularly strong in Los Angeles, where, according to some estimates, almost 50 percent of the city’s work force earns less than $15 an hour. Under the plan approved Tuesday, the minimum wage will rise over five years.

“The effects here will be the biggest by far,” said Michael Reich, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was commissioned by city leaders to conduct several studies on the potential effects of a minimum-wage increase. “The proposal will bring wages up in a way we haven’t seen since the 1960s. There’s a sense spreading that this is the new norm, especially in areas that have high costs of housing.”

The groups pressing for higher minimum wages said that the Los Angeles vote could set off a wave of increases across Southern California, and that higher pay scales would improve the way of life for the region’s vast low-wage work force.

Supporters of higher wages say they hope the move will reverberate nationally. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced this month that he was convening a state board to consider a wage increase in the local fast-food industry, which could be enacted without a vote in the State Legislature. Immediately after the Los Angeles vote, pressure began to build on Mr. Cuomo to reject an increase that falls short of $15 an hour.

“The L.A. increase nudges it forward,” said Dan Cantor, the national director of the Working Families Party, which was founded in New York and has helped pass progressive economic measures in several states. “It puts an exclamation point on the need for $15 to be where the wage board ends up.”

The current minimum wage in New York State is $8.75, versus a federal minimum wage of $7.25, and will rise to $9 at the end of 2015. A little more than one-third of workers citywide and statewide now make below $15 an hour.

Los Angeles County is also considering a measure that would lift the wages of thousands of workers in unincorporated parts of the county.

Much of the debate here has centered on potential regional repercussions. Many of the low-wage workers who form the backbone of Southern California’s economy live in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Proponents of the wage increase say they expect that several nearby cities, including Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Pasadena, will also approve higher wages.

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But opponents of higher minimum wages, including small-business owners and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, say the increase approved Tuesday could turn Los Angeles into a “wage island,” pushing businesses to nearby places where they can pay employees less.

“They are asking businesses to foot the bill on a social experiment that they would never do on their own employees,” said Stuart Waldman, the president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, a trade group that represents companies and other organizations in Southern California. “A lot of businesses aren’t going to make it,” he added. “It’s great that this is an increase for some employees, but the sad truth is that a lot of employees are going to lose their jobs.”

The 67 percent increase from the current state minimum will be phased in over five years, first to $10.50 in July 2016, then to $12 in 2017, $13.25 in 2018 and $14.25 in 2019. Businesses with fewer than 25 employees will have an extra year to carry out the plan. Starting in 2022, annual increases will be based on the Consumer Price Index average of the last 20 years. The City Council’s vote will instruct the city attorney to draft the language of the law, which will then come back to the Council for final approval.

The mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, a Democrat, had proposed a slightly different increase last fall and later negotiated the details with the Democratic-controlled Council. Mr. Garcetti said Tuesday that he would sign the legislation and that he hoped other elected officials, including Mr. Cuomo, would follow Los Angeles’s path.

“We’re leading the country; we’re not going to wait for Washington to lift Americans out of poverty,” Mr. Garcetti said in an interview. “We have too many adults struggling to be living off a poverty wage. This will re-establish some of the equilibrium we’ve had in the past.”

New York City does not have a separate minimum wage, but Mayor Bill de Blasio has spoken out in favor of higher wages statewide. “Los Angeles is another example of a city that’s doing the right thing, lifting people up by providing a wage on which they can live,” Mr. de Blasio said in a statement “We need Albany to catch up with the times and raise the wage.”Continue reading the main storhe push for a $15-an-hour minimum wage is not confined to populous coastal states. In Kansas City, Mo., activists recently collected enough signatures to put forward an August ballot initiative on whether to raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2020. The City Council is deliberating this week over how to respond and could pass its own measure in advance of the initiative.

As the Los Angeles City Council considered raising the minimum wage over the last several months, the question was not if, but how much. The lone councilman who voted against the bill — a Republican — did not speak during Tuesday’s meeting.

Still, for all their enthusiasm, some Council members acknowledged that it would be difficult to predict what would happen once the increase was fully in effect.

“I would prefer that the cost of this was really burdened by those at the highest income levels,” said Gil Cedillo, a councilman who represents some of the poorest sections of the city and worries that some small businesses will shut down. “Instead, it’s going to be coming from people who are just a rung or two up the ladder here. It’s a risk that rhetoric can’t resolve.”

Even economists who support increasing the minimum wage say there is not enough historical data to predict the effect of a $15 minimum wage, an unprecedented increase. A wage increase to $12 an hour over the next few years would achieve about the same purchasing power as the minimum wage in the late 1960s, the most recent peak.

Many restaurant owners here aggressively fought the increase, saying they would be forced to cut as much as half of their staff. Unlike other states, California state law prohibits tipped employees from receiving lower than the minimum wage. The Council promised to study the potential effect of allowing restaurants to add a service charge to bills to meet the increased costs.

And while labor leaders and the coalition of dozens of community groups celebrated in the rotunda of City Hall after the vote, they acknowledged there was a long way to go.

“This says to Los Angeles workers that they are respected, and that’s an important psychological effect,” said Laphonza Butler, the president of Service Employees International Union-United Long Term Care Workers here and a leader of the coalition. “To know that they have a pathway to $15, to getting themselves off of welfare and out of poverty, that’s huge. This should change the debate of the value of low-wage work.”

Field Poll: Broad concern about wealth gap, disagreement on minimum wage

A majority of Californians don’t like the way income and wealth are distributed in the state, but they divide by political ideology and party affiliation and about how much government should do to reduce disparities between the wealthiest people and the rest of the population, according to a new Field Poll.

A majority of Democrats – 57 percent – say the state should raise the minimum wage more than it already is scheduled to go up, while 70 percent of Republicans say currently scheduled increases are adequate or already too much.

The poll’s release comes a day after the minimum wage in California rose to $9 an hour, and it offers rare insight into how immigrants in California view economic conditions here differently than Californians born in the United States. While adults born outside the United States are more likely than U.S.-born residents to be satisfied with the way income and wealth are distributed in California, they are far more likely to say government should do more to reduce the disparity that exists, including increasing the minimum wage.

“Even though the U.S.-born residents see the problem more clearly ... they are more hesitant to have government do anything about it,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the poll. “Politically, they’re a more conservative population overall than the immigrant population.”

Overall, 54 percent of California adults say they are dissatisfied with the way income and wealth are distributed in the state, while 38 percent say they are satisfied, according to the poll. Nearly 60 percent of residents say the gap between wealthy Californians and the rest of the population is larger than in the past, and about two-thirds of adults say government should do “some” or “a lot” to reduce the gap.

Forty-eight percent of adults say the minimum wage should be increased more, while 37 percent say current scheduled increases are adequate, according to the poll. Ten percent of California adults say the minimum wage already has been raised too much.

Legislation that raised the minimum wage to $9 an hour passed last year and will raise the hourly minimum to $10 in 2016. A California Assembly panel last week rejected a bill that would raise the state's minimum wage even higher.

Lisa Radoycis, a poll respondent from Rocklin, said the minimum wage is already more than enough and that government should concern itself with basic services, not disparities in wealth.

“I don’t think it’s a government thing,” said Radoycis, a school librarian who described herself as conservative. “I don’t think it’s for them to do.”

Tom Metry, a Republican from Fresno, disagreed. The retired math teacher said raising the minimum wage could help low earners improve their lives in a community where he said he knows many people who have to work two or more jobs.

“That’s the only way we’re going to level things out,” Metry said. “It’s got to be some type of fair equity.”

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/07/02/6527682/poll-shows-broad-concern-about.html#mi_rss=State%20Politics#storylink=cpy

Bill again boosting California minimum wage fails

With multiple Democrats not voting, a California Assembly panel on Wednesday rejected a bill that would raise the state's minimum wage beyond the boost agreed to in 2013.

Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, repeated the arguments that last year drove lawmakers and Gov. Jerry Brown to approve a bill boosting California's minimum wage to $10 a hour by 2016.

Leno's Senate Bill 935 would build on that, pushing the baseline to $13 an hour in 2017 and then allowing the wage to rise along with the cost of living thereafter.

"If we don't support this bill the outstanding question remains: What are we as the state of California going to do about paying poverty wages?" said Leno, who has called last year's legislation inadequate. "The phenomenon of income inequality and wealth inequality only continues to grow."

Business groups warned that Leno's bill could unhinge a faltering economic recovery and asked lawmakers to wait for last year's legislation to take effect. The hike included in 2013's Assembly Bill 10 kicks in on July 1, raising the minimum wage from $8 to $9.

"It is too much, too soon given that AB 10 is just going into effect next week, and we should allow that bill to implement," said Jennifer Barrera, a lobbyist for the California Chamber of Commerce.

That argument resonated with some Democrats on the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee. Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, the author of last year's minimum wage hike, said Leno's bill would mean reneging on agreements Alejo had made with business interests to not include a cost-of-living adjustment.

"The ink hasn't even dried on AB 10," Alejo said. "You've got to keep your word."

One vote separated the bill from passage. The final tally was 3-2 ( it needed four votes to move on), with Alejo and Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, not voting.

Editor's note: This post was updated at 4:19 p.m. to include the vote total and the fact that the bill was in the Assembly.

PHOTO: Senator Mark Leno, D-San Francisco during session in the Senate chambers in Sacramento, Calif. on Monday, March 11, 2013. The Sacramento Bee/Hector Amezcua.

via: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2014/06/bill-again-boosting-california-minimum-wage-fails.html

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April Action Days

My name is Amanda and I am a product of Time for Change Foundation where I have also become a leader in my community. I recently had the opportunity to attend April Action Days in Sacramento with other organizations like California Partnership and Hunger Action L.A.  to raise our voices about bills that affect low-income communities and women's economic security.

Senate Bill 935, authored by Senator Mark Leno, which would increase the minimum wage to $13 by 2016 really resonates with me because  I am a recovering addict who comes from a life of dysfunction and chaos and now I have a job and the opportunity to bring my daughter home with me; raising the minimum wage would reunite me with my daughter and help us to live a better life. 

I am so thankful to have had this opportunity to visit the capitol, it was actually my first time being involved in something like this and it was so empowering not only to be a part of it, but to know that my voice really does matter. I never knew that I could be a part of something much bigger than myself. I became a part of the process in determining society’s future.

Time for Change Foundation Leaders from left:
Crystal, Jeannine, Cecilia, Amanda

My name is Crystal and my experience at the State Capitol was exhilarating! I felt so empowered as a constituent. Seeing other people like me using their time to speak on behalf of their families and communities gives me hope that more will find the courage to raise our voices and remind our representatives that we are the ones who put them there. 

I went to advocate for SB 1029, authored by Senator Loni Hancock, which would lift the lifetime ban on CalWORKS and CalFresh for people that have been convicted of any offense classified as a felony that has an element the posession, use or distribution of a controlled substance.

Being a part of Time for Change Foundation's transitional housing program I have met many women that are out of prison or jail and ready to move forward with their lives but continue to hit this brick wall. 

Removing the lifetime ban would help women like myself give our children the opportunity to thrive and have successful lives.  

This experience has taught me that we can change the laws and injustices that our communities face on a daily basis, but only if we stand up and use the strength of our voices. Together we can!

It's back to San Diego politics as usual in unusual mayoral election

SAN DIEGO — Councilman and mayoral candidate David Alvarez stood and applauded when acting Mayor Todd Gloria, in his state of the city address, proposed raising the minimum wage in San Diego beyond the scheduled statewide increases.

Councilman Kevin Faulconer, Alvarez's opponent in the Feb. 11 election, remained seated, hands folded in his lap. He later told reporters that raising the minimum wage could be bad for business and lead to elimination of jobs.

Differences over economic issues illustrate the divide between Alvarez, a Democrat, and Faulconer, a Republican, as the hurry-up campaign to find a successor to the disgraced Bob Filner enters its final stretch with prickly debates and dueling TV commercials.

Alvarez supported a 2010 measure to boost the sales tax by half a cent, an increase that then-Mayor Jerry Sanders said was vital to prevent further cuts in city services because of the city's spiraling pension payments.

Faulconer led the opposition, arguing that no taxes should be raised until the city finished reforming the pension system.

Voters agreed with Faulconer — Proposition B was defeated 62% to 38%. The appeal of smaller government is strong; nonpartisan polls suggest that Faulconer is leading Alvarez, particularly in more prosperous neighborhoods north of Interstate 8.

Alvarez supports raising a tax on developers to provide low-income housing. Faulconer opposes it — this time in alliance with Sanders — and calls it a "jobs tax." The issue appears headed for the ballot.

Faulconer supports what could be called the San Diego orthodoxy: Hold down taxes, control spending, keep labor unions in check. That philosophy guided three successful mayors in recent decades: Republican Pete Wilson (who served from 1971 to 1983), Democrat Maureen O'Connor (1986-1992) and Sanders, a Republican (2005-2012).

Alvarez, a San Diego native, said he has seen that style of civic management result in certain neighborhoods being neglected by City Hall for lack of political clout, particularly in blue-collar areas. Among the disparities, he said, is a slower response time for firetrucks in some areas because of the location of stations.

"I've witnessed how people are treated differently depending on where they live in San Diego," Alvarez said.

Asked about Wilson, O'Connor and Sanders, Alvarez said, "Those mayors neglected parts of this community. I have a different perspective."

Without agreeing to Alvarez's larger point about a past bias against some neighborhoods, Faulconer said it would not happen if he were mayor. Money for infrastructure needs such as filling potholes and fixing water lines would be spent where it's needed most, Faulconer said.

Standing in a weed-filled empty lot in a neighborhood south of I-8, Faulconer promised tax incentives "to have development right here where we need it."

Still, Faulconer stresses a concern that higher spending and taxation could prompt businesses to flee. "There's a reason why Rick Perry comes to San Diego," said Faulconer, a reference to the Texas governor's forays here to persuade firms to relocate.

Despite their differences, Alvarez and Faulconer do not represent the same philosophical chasm that separated Filner and his Republican opponent in the 2012 election, Carl DeMaio. Aided by a large turnout for the presidential election, Filner swept into office, the first Democratic mayor in 20 years.

In Filner's absence, mayoral politicking has reverted to form.

"This election marks a return to the traditional centrist pattern of San Diego politics: One candidate is center/right, the other center/left," said Steve Erie, a political science professor at UC San Diego and coauthor of "Paradise Plundered: Fiscal Crisis and Governance Failures in San Diego."

As councilman, Faulconer, 46, represents Mission Beach, Pacific Beach, Ocean Beach and Point Loma. Asked where his economic views were formed, he said at the dinner table from his father, a longtime deputy city manager in Oxnard.

Alvarez, 33, represents a district that includes Barrio Logan, Logan Heights, San Ysidro and Otay Mesa. His positions on economic issues, he said, also were shaped by his father, who was a janitor, and his mother, who worked at fast-food restaurants.

At debates, Alvarez and Faulconer poke at the source of each other's financial support. Alvarez's campaign and independent groups supporting him are largely funded by labor unions; in Faulconer's case, funding tends to come from corporate and business groups.

Carl Luna, a political science professor at San Diego Mesa College, said much of the contest has descended to a "truly uninspiring level," with an exchange of tired invectives: "You're a corporate tool!" followed by the response of "You're a union stooge!"

That "really does a disservice to San Diego voters," Luna said. "I'm tempted to say the campaign has been lackluster, but that would be an understatement."

tony.perry@latimes.com

via: http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-sd-mayor-election-20140203,0,3137640.story#ixzz2sHNVDocg

California Stood Up For Immigrants, Transgender People In 2013

2013 was a big year for the rights of immigrants, workers, women and children in California. The most populous state in the nation, led by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) and a Democratic supermajority in the state Legislature, California this year passed groundbreaking laws that bucked the national trend of restricting abortion rights, rebuked the federal government's aggressive deportation program and led the country on workers' rights.

But 2014 is going to be even better -- that's when the laws start going into effect. Take a look at some of California's landmark laws from this past year below.

TRANSGENDER RIGHTS

In a nationwide first, transgender students in California will be able to choose which restrooms they want to use starting in January. They will also be able to choose between boys' and girls' sports teams.

California is the first state to enact these policies as a state law, but the groundbreaking legislation, which goes into effect Jan. 1, could be suspended within days if opposition groups gather enough signatures to test the law before voters on the November ballot.

PAPARAZZI REFORM

Paparazzi photographers who harass and intimidate celebrities and their children will face stiffer penalties under a new law passed in 2013: a fine of up to $10,000 and up to a year in county jail. Victims can also sue for damages and attorney's fees, according to the Associated Press.

Before the bill passed, celebrity moms Halle Berry and Jennifer Garner joined forces to deliver some emotional testimony about how aggressive photographers regularly frighten their children.

"My 17-month-old baby is terrified and cries," said Garner during the August hearing. "My 4-year-old says, 'Why do these men never smile? Why do they never go away? Why are they always with us?'"

ABORTION RIGHTS

California's new law authorizes nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and physician assistants to perform aspiration abortions during the first trimester.

California joins Oregon, Montana, Vermont and New Hampshire in allowing nurse practitioners to perform early abortions, the AP reported. In 2013, California was the only state to enact a law expanding abortion access, The New York Times noted.

Legislators also strengthened an existing law that makes it illegal to damage or block access to abortion clinics, the AP reported.

MINIMUM WAGE

California's minimum wage will go from $8 an hour to $9 in July, and it will reach $10 an hour by 2016. California joins 12 other states that are raising their minimum wage in 2014.

TEXTING LOOPHOLE CLOSED

A legislative loophole made it possible for teens to use voice commands like Apple iPhone's Siri to text while driving, and California's lawmakers closed that loophole this year. Adults will still be able to use the hands-free texting feature while driving.

Teens have been banned from using cell phones on the road since 2007, but an apparent loophole opened up in 2012 when legislators passed a bill allowing drivers to use hands-free devices to send text messages and perform other functions, according to the AP.

GUN SAFETY LAWS

California already has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, but lawmakers cracked down even further with laws that strengthen assault weapon permit requirements, require licensed psychotherapists to tell police about patients who threaten violence against others, and make it illegal to purchase gun parts that convert firearms into assault-style rifles.

The bills were written in reaction to mass shootings across the country, including the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn. In contrast, the federal government hasn't been able to pass any gun safety laws since the Newtown massacre.

DOMESTIC WORKERS BILL OF RIGHTS

California joined New York and Hawaii in creating statewide protections for domestic workers in 2013. California's law allows domestic workers like nannies and personal health care aides to claim overtime wages for more than nine hours of work a day or 45 hours of work a week.

The law is expected to affect about 100,000 workers, but it's only temporary --legislators will have to vote on whether to renew the law in 2017, KPCC reported. It's also a pared-down version of the bill that was originally proposed in 2011, which included meal and rest breaks.

IMMIGRATION REFORM

The federal government is stalling on immigration reform, and Gov. Jerry Brown made it clear that California isn't going to wait around any longer. Brown signed into law a group of bills this year to protect undocumented immigrants, the most significant of which is the Trust Act.

The Trust Act limits local police's cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security's Secure Communities, a federal deportation program that asks police departments to screen arrestees for immigration status and hold them for the feds if they're found to be undocumented. So far, Secure Communities has deported 100,000 Californians, most of whom did not have a serious criminal record, the Los Angeles Times reported, but the new law will require people to be charged with or convicted of a serious offense before being held for possible deportation by the feds.

Starting in 2015, California's undocumented immigrants will also be able to apply for driver's licenses. California joins Illinois, Colorado, Nevada, Maryland, Connecticut, Oregon, and the District of Columbia in passing the driver's license legislation in 2013, MSNBC reported. New Mexico, Washington and Utah also allow undocumented immigrants to apply for driver's licenses.

via: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/31/new-california-laws-2014_n_4521694.html?utm_hp_ref=politics&ir=Politics

Jerry Brown signs bill to raise California minimum wage

Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation to raise California's minimum wage by 25 percent, from $8 an hour to $10 an hour by 2016.

The bill, celebrated by Brown and his labor union allies at an event in Los Angeles, promises the first increase in California's hourly minimum since 2008, when the minimum wage was raised 50 cents to $8.

After appearing in the state's biggest media market this morning, the Democratic governor is scheduled to fly to Oakland to promote the bill at a second event this afternoon.

Assembly Bill 10, by Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, will raise the minimum wage from $8 to $9 an hour on July 1, 2014, and to $10 on Jan. 1, 2016.

The bill was the only one of 38 bills designated by the California Chamber of Commerce as a "jobs killers" to make it out of the Legislature this year.
The chamber and other business groups said raising the hourly minimum would unfairly increase business costs and jeopardize California's economic recovery.


California is one of 18 states and the District of Columbia that have minimum wages above the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, and California's $10 minimum is likely to be among the highest in the nation in 2016.


Washington currently has the nation's highest state minimum wage, at $9.19 an hour, but that state is one of 10 that provide for automatic adjustments to their minimum wages based on cost of living measures, a provision eliminated from an earlier version of the bill Brown signed.

The California legislation is expected to affect about 1.5 million full-time, year-round workers, about 14 percent of the state's full-time workforce, according to a Bee review of U.S. Census data.

The broader effects of a minimum wage increase are the subject of longstanding debate. The California Budget Project, which advocates for low-income residents, said in a brief this month that California's minimum wage has not kept pace with the rising cost of living and that raising the hourly minimum "would help reverse the decline in the purchasing power of workers' wages."

Proponents of raising the minimum wage say workers who earn more will spend more, stimulating the economy, and will require less government assistance.

Opponents of raising the minimum wage say requiring employers to pay higher wages will force them to offset costs by raising prices, hiring fewer workers or reducing workers' hours.

The National Federation of Independent Business, an advocacy group, released a study in March warning that a minimum wage increase under an earlier version of the California bill could result in the loss of more than 68,000 jobs in California over 10 years.

The Bee's Phillip Reese contributed to this report

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

California's $2 Minimum-Wage Hike Could Make A Huge Difference

California is on track to pass a bill that would raise the state's minimum wage to $10 an hour by 2016.

That salary certainly won't make anyone rich -- as the Center for American Progress points out, it'll only bring a family of three just above the federal poverty line. But the bump is a huge step forward for the state of California, which is home to the highest total number of working-poor families in the country.

Here's a look at how a $2 wage increase would affect the lives of California's minimum-wage workers.

via : http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/labor/news/2013/09/19/74774/infographic-raising-the-minimum-wage/

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

Just five 'job killer' bills alive as legislative session nears end

The more than three dozen bills that the California Chamber of Commerce labeled as "job killers" because they would increase regulation or raise taxes have been whittled down to just five as the 2013 legislative session enters its last days.

All of the others have either been held in committee or defeated in floor votes, but technically, will still be alive for the second half of the biennial session that begins in January.

The highest-profile survivor of the original 37 bills is Assembly Bill 10, carried by Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, which would raise the state's minimum wage by $2 per hour over the next five years.

The measure was approved by the full Assembly and reached the Senate floor, awaiting another vote, after Alejo agreed to remove an automatic cost-of-living escalator.

The other four bills on the list that remain alive include:

• Senate Bill 404 by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, which would extend the Fair Employmentand Housing Act's protections against discrimination to employees who are engaged in family care duties;


• Senate Bill 365 by Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, which would place a 10-year time limit on business tax exemptions;


• Senate Bill 691 by Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, which would increase penalties for non-vehicular air quality violations; and


• Assembly Bill 769 by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, which would repeal the net operating loss carry back deduction for business.

Seven constitutional amendments aimed at lowering the vote threshold for local government and school taxes are technically still alive, but would require two-thirds legislative votes to be placed on the 2014 ballot. Legislative leaders have put them on hold until next year.

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/08/just-five-job-killer-bills-alive-as-legislative-session-nears-end.html#storylink=cpy