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A tentative labor contract for California’s state craft and maintenance workers hikes costs to taxpayers more than any deal bargained by the union in at least 11 years, according to a new report by the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office. . . The pact with International Union of Operating Engineers Bargaining Unit 12, adds a total $473 million over four years to the state’s pay and benefits costs, the analyst’s office estimates.

The angry tone of that 2013 rally, during which Walker pointed to the Capitol and shouted, “This is our house!” was fueled by years of furloughs and stagnant wages. Walker and other union leaders said that Brown had relied on union muscle to pass a 2012 ballot measure to temporarily increase taxes and should have shown gratitude with a better contract.

Labor productivity, or the amount of goods and services employees produce per hour worked, fell at a 0.6% annual rate in the first quarter, the Labor Department said Tuesday. The drop, while less steep than initially estimated, extended a troubling slowdown that has hindered the economy’s ability to lift Americans’ living standards.

An appointed citizen panel voted Wednesday to give Gov. Jerry Brown and other top elected officials 4 percent pay raises, marking the fourth year in a row that their salaries have been increased after cuts were made at the height of the recession.

Economic activity in the [12th] District grew at a moderate pace during the reporting period of early April through mid-May. Overall price inflation was modest, while wage pressures picked up. Sales of retail goods grew slightly, while activity in the consumer and business services sector expanded at a moderate pace. Demand for manufacturing products was largely flat. Activity in the agriculture sector expanded somewhat. Residential and commercial real estate market activity continued to expand at a robust pace. Lending activity grew moderately.

So far this year, half a dozen Republican-dominated state legislatures—including in Alabama, Arizona and North Carolina—have passed so-called pre-emption bills that ban Democratic-leaning cities from raising wages and mandating benefits such as sick leave above state or federal minimums. A half-dozen similar measures are pending in statehouses nationwide with more expected later this year.

A new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco . . . concludes that widely cited figures showing stagnation are mostly a statistical fluke. Workers continuously employed in full-time jobs received wage increases higher than inflation from 2002 to 2015. Last year, the gain was a 3.5 percent increase after inflation, up from 1.2 percent in 2010.

A former McDonald’s CEO warned that robots will take over staff jobs at the fast food empire – because it’s cheaper than employing humans.

The dispute began about a year ago, when the union demanded a 5% pay raise for professors and other faculty members. Cal State said it could only afford a 2% raise. . . The compromise plan allows for a larger pay increase, but spreads out the cost over three fiscal years. . . A final bump on July 1, 2017, will bring the total increase to about 10.5%. . . So far, administrators have identified about $68 million to cover the salary increases going into July and are hopeful they will secure additional funding from the state by the end of the next budget cycle.

Why aren’t teacher salaries rising? . . . It’s not for lack of money. Even after adjusting for inflation and rising student enrollment, total school spending is up by about 29 percent over the last 20 years. . . This puzzle can be explained by three trends eating into teachers’ takehome pay: rising health care costs, declining student/teacher ratios, and rising retirement costs. . . Today, states are paying an average of 12 percent of each teacher’s salary just for debt costs.

Wendy’s (WEN) said that self-service ordering kiosks will be made available across its 6,000-plus restaurants in the second half of the year as minimum wage hikes and a tight labor market push up wages.

But the Sacramento Children’s Home operates on a very modest budget, and we do not charge for any of the services that we provide to the more than 6,200 children and 4,600 families that we serve each year. We cannot simply raise the cost of our services – since they are free – to meet this gap.

The California State University faculty union announced Tuesday that its members overwhelmingly approved a new contract that will raise salaries by more than 10 percent over the next two years.

New sources of labor should be top of mind for CEOs as they contemplate protracted labor shortages. These shortages will hit most industries, pinching profits and prolonging the economic slowdown. . . An unprecedented confluence of trends—historically low productivity growth and massive baby boomer retirements—has set the stage for shortages that will hit across regions and industries.

A more accurate ratio, after adjusting for differences in gender employment patterns, is closer to 92%. Even the remaining gap of eight percentage points may not stem fully from discrimination.