Thread by @jmarshall_cfa

What’s the root cause low wages, unsafe working conditions and disappearing benefits?
Is it the robot apocalypse? Nope.
The skills gap? Wrong.
#CAFutureofWork
latimes.com/business/story…

@JulieSuCA gives the correct answer *and* demonstrates her carpentry skills this morning as she hits the nail on the head: “Workers need more power in the workplace.”

Honored to have served over the past 18 months on the CA Future of Work Commission, which recognized that we must rebalance power in favor of workers, particularly CA’s low-wage workers, overwhelmingly composed of women and workers of color, through unions and worker orgs.

The report finds: “The probability of being in a low-wage job is reduced by 39 percent if a worker is covered by a union contract. By comparison, having a college degree reduces the probability of being in a low-wage job by 33 percent.”

How do we get there? At the federal level we can pass the #PROAct, but what about states like CA? The report calls out the “misclassification of employees as independent contractors” and makes clear that “Existing workplace protections must be enforced.”

Importantly the report also places an important focus on the subsidies provided by California taxpayers to employers in the state and calls for greater transparency and accountability regarding the quality of jobs created by those firms. This will be an important area to watch.

Full report here: labor.ca.gov