This study finds that while California added 300,000 jobs between June 2004 and June 2005, the labor market remains slack with 2% fewer working-age Californians employed compared to the first half of 2001. Real wages in California have fallen by 0.7% between the first halves of 2004 and 2005, and wages also fell in the United States as a whole by 0.5% between first halves of 2004 and 2005. Increases in the California minimum wage in 2001 and 2002 helped low-end workers, but those gains are being eroded by inflation. The bottom third of the U.S. workforce experienced wage declines for three years in a row, while the bottom third in California saw an increase in purchasing power.
