Join us at the CalMatters Ideas Festival on May 21. 💡 Get your tickets now.

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

About

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.

California Divide
California families are hungry while a third of crops rot in fields
Maximina Molina Sanchez is worried about going hungry this winter. She depends on a food bank in Huron to feed her husband and two kids. But with most agricultural workers out of jobs during the winter, demand is bound to increase, so she worries there won’t be enough food to feed everyone who needs it. […]
By • October 18, 2019
California Divide
How bad teeth and lack of dental care can lead to poverty, discrimination
Gina Diaz-Nino considers herself an extrovert. But since her mouth began deteriorating after years of methamphetamine use and two fights, she receded into the shadows.  Her teeth are yellow, crooked and browning around the corners. Most of her top teeth are either chipped, missing or decaying. When they fell out, they crumbled like chalk. “I’ll […]
By • October 17, 2019
California Divide
This Trump rule change will mean lower wages for farmworkers
Temporary seasonal farmworkers will see wages decrease if a visa rule change proposed by the Trump administration goes through, and labor advocates worry that it also could lead to pay cuts for other domestic farmworkers. Agriculture industry experts say the decreased costs will provide some much-needed relief for growers. The H-2A program allows agricultural employers […]
By • October 16, 2019
California Divide
Newsom vetoed two bills aimed at reforming child support payback system
Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed two child support reform bills that anti-poverty advocates had hoped would give a boost to low-income families in California. The bills would have sent more child support money to families receiving public benefits and eliminated interest on overdue child support payments owed to the government. Supporters had argued that the […]
By • October 15, 2019
California Divide
School meals: a reflection of growing poverty in LA 
It’s 7:30 in the morning of any given school day. Jonathan Rodríguez and Yvette Fuentes, both 12, arrive at the Luther Burbank Middle School cafeteria to pick up breakfasts in closed containers and take them in carts to the classrooms of teachers Emily Feinberg and Gisele Hoffer.  The food is placed on a counter in […]
By • October 8, 2019
California Divide
Black people disproportionately homeless in California
Just a few years ago, Yolanda Harraway was living in a tent on the streets of Chinatown in Salinas, an agricultural hub struggling with a growing homeless community. Harraway’s slide into homelessness began when her son was taken from her custody by Child Protective Services. She struggled with addiction and had several felonies on her […]
By • October 5, 2019

Gift this article

California Divide - Page 65 of 68 - CalMatters
News and analysis on poverty and income inequality in California.
CalMatters
California, explained