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Street Vendor photograph, courtesy of Rudy Espinoza, April 2013

Sidewalk Stimulus: Economic and Geographic Impact of Los Angeles Street Vendors

June 22, 2015 / By Yvonne Yen Liu, Patrick Burns and Daniel Flaming / East LA Community Corporation

Street vending is a $504 million industry in Los Angeles. Every year, 50,000 microbusinesses set up shop on the sidewalks of the city, according to the Bureau of Street Services. Three-quarters sell merchandise, such as clothing and cell phone accessories. The other 10,000 sell bacon-wrapped hot dogs, tamales, and ice cream, street food for which Los Angeles is famous. 
Photograph by Dave Dugdale, "Tip Jar at Open Bar." Uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on September 26, 2010, taken on September 24, 2010. Protected by the CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED license. The Economic Roundtable has not edited the image, even though changes and commercial uses are allowed under this license.

The Tipping Point

April 22, 2015 / By Yvonne Yen Liu

One out of four restaurant workers in Los Angeles lives in poverty. A raise in minimum wage that includes tipped workers will save taxpayers on public assistance programs.
Photograph by Anne Davis 773, "Memories Are Made of This." Uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on March 8, 2010, taken on March 7, 2010. Protected by the CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED license. Economic Roundtable has not changed, remixed, transformed, or built upon the material, and is not using it for commercial purposes.

Cruel Summer: Economic Impacts of Extending Unemployment Benefits to Public K-12 Classified Workers in the State of California

April 21, 2015 / By Patrick Burns, Daniel Flaming and Yvonne Yen Liu / California State Council of Service Employees, SEIU Local 1021, SEIU Local 221, SEIU Local 521, SEIU Local 99

Most California school employees in classified positions such as teacher assistants, childcare workers, janitors, and office clerks struggle to support their families with incomes that are often inadequate to pay for food, housing and health care. The median annual earnings of classified workers in 2012 was only $20,700, well below self-sufficiency standards. 
Los Angeles Rising infographic: Owned by Economic Roundtable, paid creation of Design Action Collective (inv # 5339), in collaboration with ERt staff.

Why is $15.25 minimum wage a stimulus for the local economy?

March 25, 2015 / By Yvonne Yen Liu

A raise to $15.25 by 2019 is an investment in Los Angeles. Dollars earned by minimum wage workers will be spent locally, thereby growing our city.
Los Angeles Rising infographic: Owned by Economic Roundtable, paid creation of Design Action Collective (inv # 5339), in collaboration with ERt staff.

Los Angeles Rising: A City That Works for Everyone

March 19, 2015 / By Daniel Flaming, Halil Toros, Yvonne Yen Liu, Patrick Burns, Lucero Herrera, UCLA Labor Center, Tia Koonse, UCLA Labor Center, Saba Waheed, UCLA Labor Center and Robert Habans, UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment / Los Angeles County Federation of Labor

Raising L.A.'s minimum wage to $15.25 per hour will put $5.9 billion new dollars into the pockets of workers and families, and provide stimulus benefits for under-invested communities. Paying fair wages is an adjustment for some businesses, but the result is a bigger, more sustainable, and more inclusive economy for Los Angeles.
Photograph by Rudy Espinoza Franco, "25". Uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on February 19, 2013, taken on February 17, 2013. Protected by the CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED license. The Economic Roundtable has not changed, remixed, transformed, or built upon the material, and is not using it for commercial purposes.

Impact of Street Vendors on Brick and Mortars

February 19, 2015 / By Yvonne Yen Liu

Economic Roundtable mapped the locations of street vendors and brick and mortar retail and restaurants in Los Angeles. What we found was surprising.
Owned by Economic Roundtable, creation of ERt staff.

Seeds of Change, Our New Blog

January 21, 2015 / By yvonneliu

We at Economic Roundtable are excited to launch our new blog, Seeds of Change, alongside our redesigned website. The title is a reference to the tree of knowledge in our logo, symbolized in Los Angeles by the Wisdom Tree atop Cahuenga Peak.  The lone pine tree sits on its perch overlooking the city from its vantage point close to the Hollywood sign.   
Photograph by Daniel Flaming, Economic Roundtable, 2011. Owned by Economic Roundtable

Capturing stormwater, capturing jobs

December 17, 2014 / By Patrick Burns

Recent rains in Southern California are a welcome change amid the ongoing drought affecting the region.  Each week sees a little more rainfall, sometimes in brief torrents that wake you at night, and others in slow, steady drizzle that last all day.  A challenge for the state — and for water-guzzling Los Angeles in particular — is to capture and store that water today for use during the dry days, weeks and months ahead. 
Photograph by Astrid Westvang, "Shadow Workers". Uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on February 27, 2009, taken on February 23, 2009. Protected by the CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED license. The Economic Roundtable has not changed the image, and does not imply that the licensor endorses our use. The Economic Roundtable is not using the material for commercial purposes, and is not redistributing a modified, remixed, transformed, or built upon version of the material.

Sinking Underground: The Growing Informal Economy in California Construction

September 1, 2014 / By Yvonne Yen Liu and Daniel Flaming / United Brotherhood of Carpenters

Construction is a $152 billion industry in California, employing 895,000 workers. One out of six construction workers in the Golden State, that is 143,900, sank into the informal economy in 2011. Informal construction workers earn about half of what their formal counterparts bring home and their households are three times more likely to live in poverty.

Repaying Hospitality: Economic Impacts of Raising Hotel Workers Wages and Benefits in the City of Los Angeles

December 1, 2013 / By Patrick Burns and Daniel Flaming / Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy

A $15.37 minimum wage for Los Angeles hotels with 100 or more rooms would affect over 5,000 low-wage hotel workers, including housekeepers, janitors, banquet servers, bellhops and desk clerks. The twenty year trend for hotel growth and rising hotel occupancy and revenue support the finding that the proposed new minimum wage is feasible for the hotel industry in Los Angeles.

Effects of a Fifteen Dollar an Hour Minimum Wage in the City of Los Angeles

November 1, 2013 / By Daniel Flaming and Patrick Burns / AFL-CIO, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor

America has lost ground on the intent declared by Congress when the Fair Labor Standards Act was enacted in 1938, that workers will receive wages sufficient to maintain "the minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency, and general well-being." The federal minimum wage had the greatest value in 1968. Set at $1.60 an hour, it had a value of $10.51 in 2012 dollars. The current federal minimum wage of $7.25 is worth 31 percent less. This wage attrition is part of most people's everyday experience. Three-quarters of the full-time labor force residing in the City of Los Angeles earn less than comparable workers 30 years ago.
Photograph of Half Dome in Winter, Yosemite National Park, by Daniel Flaming. Owned by Economic Roundtable, creation of ERt staff.

Building a Sustainable Rural Economy: Mariposa, California

December 1, 2012 / By Daniel Flaming / Economic Roundtable

The 25¢ coin that was minted in 2005 to commemorate California shows John Muir admiring the granite walls of Yosemite. Mariposa County is home to Yosemite, one of the most beloved places in California. This study explores the economic well-being of county residents and strategies for providing sustaining jobs for the resident labor force.
City of Los Angeles Housing Department, Affordable and Accessible Housing Registry, photograph of "The Mediterranean AKA Mindanao," 1800 W Temple St., Los Angeles, CA 90026.

Jobs, Wages and Housing: Affordable Housing Benefit Fee Study

November 1, 2012 / By Daniel Flaming, Patrick Burns, Michael Matsunaga, Yasmin Tong and Ken Baar / City of Los Angeles

New development solves housing problems for some workers by creating new jobs that pay sustaining wages. At the same time, it creates additional demand for affordable housing because some of the workers who will be employed will not earn enough money to afford market-rate rental housing. This report analyzes a possible affordable housing benefit fee for new development in Los Angeles. If approved, this fee would recover a portion of the public cost for meeting the demand for affordable housing that results from new development.

Equity below the Wing

February 1, 2012 / By Patrick Burns and Daniel Flaming / Good Jobs LA

Many runway jobs of baggage and cargo handlers and cabin cleaners at Los Angeles International Airport have been outsourced to labor contractors, resulting in reduced wages and benefits for workers. For a small, incremental cost passed along to passengers, meaningful improvement can be made in the standard of living and health benefits of LAX airside workers, which will spark significant sales and tax multiplier effects for the Los Angeles region. 
Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz, "P20221027AS-2656." Uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons and taken on October 27, 2022. United States government work, open for fair use.

Getting to Work: Unemployment and Economic Recovery in Los Angeles

February 1, 2012 / By Daniel Flaming and Patrick Burns / Economic Roundtable, the Pat Brown Institute

Unemployment and underemployment currently represent $25.8 billion in annual wages not earned in Los Angeles County, $28.2 billion in lost private sector economic activity and $4 billion in tax revenue not generated. Over a fifth of Los Angeles County’s labor force is unemployed or underemployed. Over a third of the county’s population lives in a household where one or more breadwinners are under-employed.

Photograph by Daniel Flaming, Economic Roundtable, 2011. Owned by Economic Roundtable

Water Use Efficiency and Jobs

December 1, 2011 / By Patrick Burns / City of Los Angeles Piping Industry, International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, National Inspection-Testing-Certification Corporation, Progress and Education Fund, the Community Development Department and Workforce Investment Board

At the peak of California’s most recent drought in 2009, the Los Angeles economy was in severe recession, with unemployment above 12 percent. These twin crises identified a policy opportunity to tackle both challenges together. Public investments in water use efficiency provide economic and job benefits alongside the environmental benefits from using less water. 
Photograph by Ashwini Chaudhary (Monty) “Room cleaning items in hallway” Published on January 28, 2020 on Unsplash. Free to use under the Unsplash License.

Impacts of Living Wages in the Airport Hospitality Enhancement Zone

December 8, 2010 / By Daniel Flaming and Patrick Burns / City of Los Angeles Administrative Officer

This study of the Airport Hospitality Enhancement Zone examines the economic impacts of minimum compensation requirements, outcomes from the non-tiered living wage requirement for both tipped and non-tipped hotel workers, and the costs and possible benefits of training for hotel workers. Hotels in the Airport Hospitality Zone are called upon by the City to pay workers a minimum of $10.30 an hour and $1.25 per hour in health benefits, or $11.55 an hour if health benefits are not provided. 
Photograph by John A. Mozzer, "Hazeltine Ave./Collins St., Van Nuys, CA - Before Demolition". Photograph uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on on February 22, 2008, taken on April 15, 2007. Protected by the CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED license. The Economic Roundtable has not changed, remixed, transformed, or built upon the material, and is not using it for commercial purposes.

Economic Study of the Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO) and the Los Angeles Housing Market

August 1, 2009 / By Daniel Flaming, Patrick Burns, Michael Matsunaga, Mirna Ponce, Ken Baar, Raphael Bostic and Malcolm Bennett / City of Los Angeles Housing Department

Severe overcrowding in Los Angeles rental housing fell 63 percent from 2000 to 2007, the most recent year for which data is available. Only 9 percent of renters are severely overcrowded, with 1.5 or more occupants per room. The bad news is that 58 percent of renters are rent-burdened, paying 30 percent or more of their income for rent. 
Photograph by Ed Yourdon, "Recession special at Gray's Papaya shop." Photograph uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on March 12, 2009, taken on March 10, 2009. Protected under the CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED license. The Economic Roundtable has not changed, remixed, transformed, or built upon the material, and is not using it for commercial purposes.

Ebbing Tides in the Golden State: Impacts of the 2008 Recession on California and Los Angeles County

June 8, 2009 / By Daniel Flaming, Patrick Burns and Michael Matsunaga / Economic Roundtable, the California Endowment

The most concrete characteristic of a recession is that demand disappears for some of the commodities produced by workers and unwanted unemployment is imposed on a large segment of the labor force. With growing job losses in the current recession it is important to know, whose boat falls when the economic tide recedes? 
Image word cloud "Living Wage" by EpicTop10.com. Uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on August 24, 2019. Protected under the CC BY 2.0 DEED license. The Economic Roundtable attributes credit for this image to www.epictop10.com

Benchmark for a Family-Sustaining Wage in Los Angeles

June 1, 2009 / By Michael Matsunaga / the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency

A budget for providing basic family necessities in Los Angeles calls for an annual income of $49,135 for one parent with two children and $54,078 for two parents with two children. The income for providing basic family necessities is about two and a half times greater than the poverty threshold. 

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