California’s job market is among the fastest-growing in the nation, and the state’s unemployment rate is at one of its the lowest levels in seven years.
But the state’s middle-income earners continued to see their wages decline in 2014, according to new research — evidence that a crucial segment of the workforce is still falling behind.
Wages for the typical worker in California — those who earn $19.18 an hour, or about $39,800 a year — are still 1.8% lower than they were in 2011, when the state’s unemployment rate hovered around 11.5%. The current unemployment rate is 6.4%
The research from the California Budget & Policy Center also shows that median earners in California are making substantially less than they were before the Great Recession in 2006, after adjusting for inflation.
View Article