The Workers’ Compensation Premium Rate Ranking Summary from Oregon’s Department of Consumer and Business Services shows that California businesses spend $3.48 for every $100 of payroll issued.
That’s 188 percent of the median cost of $1.85 for all 50 states. California was the third most expensive state in 2012 and the fifth most expensive in 2010.
Premium rate indices are calculated based on data from 51 jurisdictions, for rates in effect as of Jan. 1, 2014. The 2014 median value is $1.85, which is a drop of 2 percent from the $1.88 median of the 2012 study. Oregon’s premium rate index is $1.37 per $100 of payroll, or 74 percent of the national median. National premium rate indices range from a low of $0.88 in North Dakota, to a high of $3.48 in California.
Although NOAA forecasters predicted a slightly wetter year for the Southland, the outlook remained dry for Central California, one of the state’s most parched regions. Most of the middle of the state would continue in what the NOAA classified as “exceptional drought.”
. . . California, once the exemplar of modernity, has among the worst road conditions in the nation, a tenuous, but still extraordinarily expensive, energy grid, as well as an increasingly uncompetitive port structure. Thinking itself a youthful magnet for building entrepreneurs of all kinds – creators of new communities, manufacturing and logistics industries – California is increasingly viewed by other places, both in the country and abroad, as an ideal place to hunt for skilled people, expanding industries and investment capital.
Most believe California has reacted slowly to being regarded as one of the most anti-business environments in the country. The simple fact that California initially was not even on the short list should give folks in Sacramento heartburn!
Her remarks added to a series of statements that began trickling out from the Capitol early this year and have intensified heading into the Nov. 4 elections. The issue, arising now in interviews, candidate questionnaires and debates, is likely to become a major point of controversy in Sacramento in the run-up to 2016.
For the past decade, the U.S. shale boom has mostly passed by California, forcing oil refiners in the state to import expensive crude.
Now that’s changing as energy companies overcome opposition to forge ahead with rail depots that will get oil from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale.
In a story reported widely in northern California last month, agents from the Department of Industrial Relations showed up unannounced at the tiny Westover Winery, in Castro Valley, and slapped its owners with more than $115,000 in fines and assessments for using volunteer workers.
But that’s a problem in California, which has the strictest guidelines in the country. If even one rivet in a larger product is foreign, state law says it amounts to false advertising to call it U.S. made.
The result: A host of consumer lawsuits against manufacturers, including two against Lifetime in which people complained they had been duped by the company’s labeling. Makers of everything from door locks to hand tools have been sued in recent years. A maker of helium tanks designed to be used at children’s parties was sued because it started packing imported balloons with the equipment. Another case involved Mag Instruments, a California company that produces Maglite flashlights. It was sued for using small rubber rings and light bulbs from abroad.
. . . The two suits were ultimately certified as a single class action and were settled last spring in a state court in San Diego. The court awarded plaintiff’s attorneys $485,000, and Lifetime agreed to donate an additional $325,000 to charity and to offer discounts to consumers who had bought basketball equipment in the past. One of the two named plaintiffs was awarded $4,500, the other $3,500. The company says the bill for its legal team added an additional $535,000.
The California Tax Foundation on October 1 released the state’s first comprehensive study of California parcel taxes, identifying more than $1.9 billion in parcel taxes imposed annually on property owners.
The percentage of businesses who expect to trim full-time head counts is in the single digits, with business and professional services most likely to anticipate boosting hiring. More than a third said they’re planning to bring on additional part-time workers.
Crude oil would cost at least $150 a barrel due to supply disruptions in the Middle East and North Africa were it not for rising production in North Dakota and Texas, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) chief Adam Sieminski said in an interview on Wednesday.
The giant wholesaler that provides drinking water for half the California population has drained two-thirds of its stored supplies as the state contends with a punishing drought, officials said Monday.
Of 27 bills the California Chamber of Commerce labeled this year as “job killers,” just two made it to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk.
One would prohibit contracts that require someone to waive his or her right to pursue a civil action for a civil rights claim. The other would hold businesses liable when subcontractors violate wage, workplace safety or workers’ compensation rules.
A few steps from the concrete footprints of Clark Gable and Bette Davis, the Democratic governor took the front-and-center seat among a crowd of dignitaries to celebrate the tax break he had come to sign into law at a desk below the theater’s decorative dragons.