This report analyzes the working and living conditions of service, retail, and other workers at Universal Studios Hollywood.

This brief examines the complex experiences and inequities faced by working community college students in Los Angeles.

This report explores two approaches, High Road Training Partnerships (HRTPs) and sectoral boards, to addressing workplace needs across the nail salon industry.

This brief offers an analysis of publicly available data from the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission’s High Volume For-Hire Vehicle (HVFHV) trip database.

This brief provides a profile of private sector janitorial workers in California—who they are, their employment conditions and the economic vulnerabilities they face due to their low wages, employment status, and gender.

This brief captures national trends in the nail salon sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. Made up of mostly Asian immigrant women, nail salons in the U.S. are predominantly small businesses, and pandemic closures have uniquely devastated both workers and owners. Issues concerning labor, health, and safety have only intensified since the pandemic’s start.

The California homecare industry is facing critical issues that strain workers and consumers alike, amid growing demand that further intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meaningful and timely public investment in the state’s homecare workforce and infrastructure is imperative to its sustainability.

This report is the first in the nation to provide an in-depth portrait of COVID-19 safety compliance through the lens of fast-food workers themselves. It finds that fast-food workers in Los Angeles County are at higher risk of contracting COVID-19, in addition to facing difficult work conditions that became more acute during the pandemic. This report expands on an industry analysis conducted last year on working conditions in fast-food restaurants.

This report builds on existing knowledge about workers and learners by documenting how their academic, employment, and life experiences inform their concerns and expectations for the return to campus and work amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study finds that working conditions in the Los Angeles fast-food industry lead to an increased risk of COVID-19 transmission in communities of color, and $1.2 billion in public costs as a result of low wages that have plagued the industry for years. It will be followed by a second report on fast-food workers in summer 2021.

This report provides a profile of domestic workers in California—who they are, where they live and work, and the economic vulnerabilities they face.

This report finds that gig workers in California have been hit hard during the COVID-19 pandemic and worker ownership could help remedy this crisis in the gig economy.

This report finds that advocacy efforts by rank-and-file members of the United Food and Commercial Workers broadly support union organizing for safer and more equitable workplaces for LGBTQ workers in the U.S. and Canada, but the fight toward ending workplace discrimination is far from over.

This research brief documents how the academic, employment, and life experiences of workers and learners changed since the onset of the COVID-19 global health crisis.

This report finds that LA County’s proposed public safety councils at workplaces offer a cost-effective strategy to combat the spread of COVID19 and help speed LA’s economic recovery.

This new study finds that nail salon owners and workers face significant stress and economic hardship as they anticipate reopening in California.

This curriculum serves as a guide for the UCLA Labor Center’s animated short film, I am a #YoungWorker.

This report analyzes the state of young workers throughout California, with a focus on the industries in which they are concentrated. The related curriculum is designed for teachers, organizers, trainers, and educators to unpack issues faced by young workers.

PAGA empowers workers to defend their labor rights, collecting millions for the workers, plus funding enforcement.

First in-depth empirical study of court-ordered community service.

Learn about the impact of our innovative tutoring model and the Parent Worker Project.

First national study of labor conditions in multi-billion dollar nail salon industry.

This report is the first comprehensive study of drivers working for transportation networking companies in Los Angeles County.

This multilingual educational booklet highlights housing rights and protections in California, as well as prohibitions against discrimination.

This report is the first comprehensive study conducted in Los Angeles that details the adverse impacts of unpredictable scheduling on the city’s 140,000+ retail workers.

As of 2015, half a million Californians employed homecare workers. This study provides an understanding of homecare employers’ challenges, needs and employment practices in California.

A new research brief explores the experience of the Black community in California through a labor and employment lens. As a result of widening inequality and a glaring lack of economic opportunities, California is in the throes of a Black jobs crisis.

As a result of a lack of economic opportunities, widening inequality, and rising housing costs, the Black community in Los Angeles is experiencing a jobs crisis. This report considers how the lack of access to quality jobs is adversely impacting the community and draws a portrait of the challenges that Black workers in Los Angeles face.

Young workers are a vibrant and critical part of the Los Angeles County service economy. Expanding on the findings of the I am a #YOUNGWORKER report, this report finds that young workers experience erratic scheduling practices, such as unpredictable schedules, lack of advance notice, lack of input, and on-call scheduling.

Los Angeles houses the largest cut and sew apparel base in the U.S. and is the center of the country’s garment manufacturing industry. This report provides insights into the health, safety and environmental conditions of these garment factories. The report was based upon 307 surveys with garment workers in 2015.

The first statewide study of California’s domestic work employers, this report explores who domestic work employers are. Based on 501 randomly-dialed phone surveys throughout the state, this study provides demographic and household details, as well as an understanding of the employment practices and needs of domestic employers.

This report explores the ways in which the criminal justice system can also lock workers on probation, parole, facing court-ordered debt, or child support debt into bad jobs. Because these workers face the threat of incarceration for unemployment, the report finds that they cannot afford to refuse a job, quit a job, or to challenge their employers.

“Conveying Carwash Owners’ Stories: Competition, Diversity and Growth in the Southern California Carwash Industry,” a study- the first of its kind, provides an introduction to the industry, its owners, and the opportunities for this industry in Southern California.

Young people work to live, not to play. Study that reveals precarious conditions young workers experience in Los Angeles.

Young Workers in Los Angeles: A Snapshot analyzes census data on young people between the ages of 18 and 29 working across Los Angeles County.

This guide is a companion to Re:Work radio’s episode Los Callejones, which provides a framework for workshops and classrooms to build storytelling skills while learning about the issues related to the garment industry.

This policy brief analyzes Los Angeles Department of Transportation taxi meter data from 2009 to 2014. The findings describe the economic impact of companies like Uber and Lyft on Los Angeles’s taxi industry.

Through interviews and surveys with worker centers and union leadership, this report evaluates the affiliation process and establishes recommendations for the AFL-CIO on how to expand and strengthen them.

The report documents findings from a worker-led study, in which Garment Worker Center members, and student supporters, conducted a survey with local garment workers about their child care needs and the barriers they encounter. 

Nuestros Derechos como Trabajadoras del Hogar: Educación Popular para un Cambio Laboral is a popular education curriculum for domestic workers who are seeking to organize and know their rights.

A report from the Economic Roundtable, the UCLA Labor Center, and the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment assesses the benefits and consequences of raising Los Angeles’s minimum wage to $15.25.

Un reporte por David Bacon que destaca las perspectivas de líderes laborales de México, Estados Unidos, y Canadá sobre el futuro del trabajo.

Human Impact Partners examines the health impact of wage theft in the city of Los Angeles. A partnership with the Los Angeles Coalition Against Wage Theft.

This reports explores the demographic, economic and political changes happening in Orange County.

Low-wage workers experience labor violations regardless of their occupation or industry work. Therefore, this research project conducted by the wage theft report identifies policy efforts that would improve the conditions of low-wage workers.

A comparative study of targeted hire initiatives based on 14 in-depth case studies of project labor agreements and ordinances, as well as a scan of 20 examples of other targeted hire initiatives.

This report examines the challenges that workers have in recovering their hard-earned wages after winning a judgement in a wage theft case.

This study looks specifically at what could happen to the low-income residents of the Valley and Hollywood, and the public employees who currently serve those areas if the Valley and Hollywood secede from Los Angeles.

In this report, we provide a statistical overview of the AAPI workforce in the United States. Wage inequality has been increasing within the AAPI workforce at an even faster rate than in the rest of the economy.

Loncheras, or stationary food trucks, are predominantly microenterprises owned and operated by Latino families in their own neighborhoods, contributing to their communities’ economic development by keeping profits local.

Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence documents findings from the first National Asian Pacific American Workers’ Rights Hearing, a historic gathering of over 200 Asian American and Pacific Islander trade unionists and community allies.

This report focuses on the results of a survey of more than 4,000 workers in low-wage industries. Among its findings, every week in Los Angeles low-wage workers lose $26.2 million dollars in wage theft violations.

A landmark survey of 4,387 workers in low-wage industries in the three largest U.S. cities—Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City. The first national study on wage theft.

In 2002, the first ever California State Assembly Hearing on Asian Pacific Islander Workers brought together Asian Pacific Islander workers and advocates from all over California. This report synthesizes the issues and recommendations for workers, advocates, legislators, and communities.