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Fast food workers from across California rallied at the state Capitol in Sacramento, urging lawmakers to pass AB 257. Aug. 16, 2022, Photo by Rahul Lal, CalMatters

California Divide

Covering income inequality across the state

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California’s gap between rich and poor is among the largest in the country, and it is widening. We explore how income inequality is reverberating across the state.

Inside the Newsroom
California Divide media collaboration adds a veteran journalist in Los Angeles
Nigel Duara, a national, multi-media journalist, will join CalMatters to cover poverty and inequality issues as part of the California Divide project, a unique collaboration among major state news organizations. Duara most recently worked as a Los Angeles-based national and climate correspondent at VICE News Tonight on HBO. Previously, he was a national correspondent based […]
By • January 8, 2020
California Divide
Minimum-wage workers will see pay boosts on Jan. 1
Low-wage workers will ring in the new decade with bigger paychecks as a round of minimum wage hikes takes effect on Jan. 1. Currently, the state minimum wage is $11 an hour for businesses with 25 or fewer employees and $12 an hour for larger employers. Beginning Jan. 1, both those rates will increase by […]
By • December 30, 2019
Protesters for and against the AB 5, the gig economy law, at the state Capitol. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters. The California gig economy law goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2020. Sacramento, CA.
California Divide
Watch new 2020 law #6: Certain gig workers to be treated as employees
Starting Jan. 1, a new California law will require some businesses to re-classify independent contractors as employees — granting them benefits such as overtime pay and the right to join a union. Businesses and organized labor both heavily lobbied lawmakers over the bill, and while some industries won exemptions, others did not. The law is […]
By • December 19, 2019
California Divide
Evictions in L.A. County: It’s become a humanitarian crisis, advocates say
A surprise eviction notice changed the lives of Juan Vera, his wife Maria and their three children forever. A representative of the apartment complex in Downey, where they had lived for more than 20 years, handed Maria an envelope.  Maria doesn’t understand English, so Camila, her 14-year-old daughter, read it to her.  “Did you see […]
By • December 9, 2019
California Divide
Dental patients face years of debt, inflated bills
Kenda Williams, 51, went to West Coast Dental in Torrance to treat the shooting pain in her molar. She spent the day in a drug-induced haze. Williams later found out she had signed up for two credit cards that day to cover her dentist’s $9,055 bill. Unemployed and on Medi-Cal, the Los Angeles resident had […]
By • December 9, 2019
California Divide
New Trump rule could eliminate food stamps for almost 200,000 Californians
The Trump administration finalized a rule Wednesday that will cut off food stamps to roughly 688,000 American adults by requiring states to enforce work requirements. The U.S. Agriculture Department said the move will save about $5.5 billion over five years. The rule takes effect in April 2020. “This is about restoring the original intent of […]
By • December 4, 2019
Immigrant Supporters Rally outside Immigration & Customs Enforcement Office San Francisco
California Divide
Cost of citizenship would rise 60% under Trump plan
A recent proposal by the Trump administration to increase the cost of applying for U.S. citizenship will disproportionately affect low-income immigrants and could dissuade many green card holders from applying, immigration advocates say. The proposed new rule, published on November 14 by the Federal Register with a month-long comment period, would raise the naturalization application fee for […]
By • November 26, 2019

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News and analysis on poverty and income inequality in California.
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