Posts tagged Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment

    Op-ed / Commentary Research ● Labor

    Commentary: California’s Fast-Food Minimum Wage Hike Is Killing Jobs

    November 13, 2025 // "On April 1, 2024, California raised its minimum wage from $16 to $20 per hour for fast-food workers employed at chains with more than 60 locations nationwide," Jeffrey Clemens, Olivia Edwards, and Jonathan Meer write in a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper that was first addressed by Reason's Peter Suderman in the November print issue. "Our median estimate suggests that California lost about 18,000 jobs that could have been retained if AB 1228 had not been passed."

    AB 1228 automation Berkeley Research Group Berkeley's Institute for Research on Labor and Employment Bureau of Labor California COVID-19 Employment Policies Institute employment rate Fast Food Fast Food Council Great Recession Labor Market Minimum wage technology University of California-Berkeley

    News Article ● Unionization Unions

    A surge in retail union organizing is the surest sign yet that workers are fed up

    March 29, 2022 // It's a trend born from pandemic-fueled discontent. Once hailed as "essential" and given "hero pay," workers have seen their wages flatline as company profits rise and CEO pay soars. They've worked through COVID waves, had coworkers die, and experienced harassment at the hands of customers who don't want to wear masks.

    Alabama Apple Berkeley's Institute for Research on Labor and Employment Bloomberg Buffalo Colorado Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations Covid decade of rising corporate profits director of labor education research employed anti-union tactics Glendale hero pay interrogating Kate Bronfenbrenner life-changing event Local 7 National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation organizing organizing committee Pandemic pandemic-fueled discontent Phoenix PPE Rally REI retail union retail union organizing Retail workers Starbucks Strike surveilling Sylvia Allegretto threatening Tony White Union union organizing unionizing United Food and Commercial Workers United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 University of California