As extra pandemic benefits ended, California poverty rose in 2023. Pay increases in 2024 and labor activism could change the equation.

Federal funding for domestic violence shelters and housing programs is declining. Advocates want the state to step in, but with a record projected deficit, new spending is unlikely.

The number of Californians facing eviction was relatively low for years during a lengthy statewide moratorium. In the year after it ended in June 2022, cases soared and still remain high in large counties.

States across the United States are banning the practice of billing kids for the cost of their foster care. Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a similar effort in California, citing costs to the state.

Cities have often landed in court when trying to enforce camping bans, but the organizations said those cases haven’t clarified what’s allowed or required.

The definition of "adequate shelter" is at the heart of debates raging across California in the five years since a federal appeals court ruled that it’s cruel and unusual punishment to evict homeless people from public spaces when they have no other options.

Agreements between labor groups and the fast food industry would give workers a $20 minimum wage and pull a measure off the 2024 ballot. The Legislature has until Thursday to approve it.

Fast-food workers in San Jose demonstrated last week against a 2024 statewide referendum to scrap a groundbreaking law allowing business-sector labor contracts that could boost fast-food wages to $22 per hour.

An obscure 1910s-era labor board once regulated everything from canneries to film sets to sheep farms. Why is California trying to revive it now?

Under the proposed state changes, recipients would gain greater flexibility to participate in activities such as going to school, domestic violence counseling, addiction treatment or mental health care, at an estimated cost of100 million.

A new state law aims to ensure workers with disabilities earn at least the minimum wage.

Domestic workers — those who are privately hired to provide services in a home — aren’t covered by the state’s or the nation’s occupational safety laws, which require most employers to meet standards to prevent injury and ensure a safe place to work. 

For nearly three years, an increase in federal aid has allowed California to issue higher-than-usual amounts in food stamps. That ends in April.

The state says it has reserves to weather a tough year but a recession could deepen the deficit in years ahead.

The state will find the money for increased benefits by removing a payroll tax shield on earnings above $145,600, effectively raising the contributions from higher earners.

Two days before the Sept. 30 deadline, after vetoing a similar bill last year and resisting months of marches, vigils and posturing, including a note from President Biden, Newsom changed his mind on a farmworker labor bill.