SB 352: California Workforce Development Board: minimum wage and housing.

The California Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act makes workforce investment programs and services available to individuals with employment barriers. The act establishes the California Workforce Development Board as the body responsible for assisting the Governor in the development, oversight, and continuous improvement of Californias workforce investment system and the alignment of the education and workforce investment systems to the needs of the 21st century economy and workforce.

Existing law establishes within the Department of Industrial Relations, the Industrial Welfare Commission, and requires the minimum wage for employees fixed by the commission or by any applicable state or local law to be paid to employees.

This bill would require the California Workforce Development Board, in conjunction with the Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development and the Director of the Department of Housing and Community Development, to examine housing costs by county county, regionally, and in the state and create a formula to ascertain how much the local minimum wage must be for a household with at least one full-time minimum wage worker must earn to reasonably afford a decent standard of living, including appropriate housing and basic expenses expenses, including nonhousing necessities, in that county. county, regionally, and in the state. The bill, commencing in 2024, would also require the California Workforce Development Board to recommend to the Legislature by December 15 of each year the minimum wage for a full-time minimum household with at least one full-time minimum wage earner to afford a decent standard of living, including appropriate housing and basic expenses, including nonhousing necessities, in each county county, regionally, and in the state and recommend a method to annually adjust figures to account for housing cost inflation and inflation broadly.