IRLE Publications

Overcooked & Underserved: The Challenges of Koreatown’s Restaurant Workers, published by the UCLA Labor Center and Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA) in partnership with Cal Poly Pomona and San Diego State University, examines the labor and housing conditions of immigrant workers in Koreatown’s restaurants. The report is based on existing literature, policy reports, 338 worker surveys, 12 worker interviews, and an analysis of publicly available demographic, labor, and industry data.

Media Contact

Emily Jo Wharry, emilyjowharry@g.ucla.edu

Student Balancing Act: Worker and Learner Experiences in Los Angeles’ Community Colleges, the latest brief released by the UCLA Labor Center, analyzes the experiences of Los Angeles County community college students who attend school and who work. For this analysis, the authors subsetted the data of 391 survey responses and nine interviews collected from community college workers and learners and featured in the UCLA Labor Center and Dolores Huerta Labor Institute (DHLI) report Unseen Costs: The Experiences of Workers and Learners in Los Angeles County.

Media Contact

Emily Jo Wharry, emilyjowharry@g.ucla.edu

Unlocking Potential: The Inland Empire Black Worker Center’s Transformative IE Works Program, a new report authored by the UCLA Center for the Advancement of Racial Equity (CARE) at Work at the UCLA Labor Center, showcases the results of this pioneering workforce development model. The program aims to provide stability, living wages, and a career path to support families utilizing a three-pronged approach: 1) internships for active college students, 2) pre-apprenticeship for those new to the trades, and 3) apprenticeship programs.

Media Contact

Emily Jo Wharry, emilyjowharry@g.ucla.edu

The 2023 Hollywood Diversity Report: Part 1 Film — the tenth in a series of annual reports — examines relationships between diversity and the bottom line in an industry in flux during uncertain times. It considers the English-language films among the top 200 theatrical film releases, ranked by global box office, and the top 100 English-language streaming films, ranked by total U.S. household ratings, to document the degree to which people from underrepresented groups were present in front of and behind the camera in 2022. It discusses any patterns between these findings and box office receipts and household and 18-49 viewer ratings by key audience demographics. The report also charts any trends that may reveal the degree to which the industry is progressing on the diversity front over time and how theatrical releases may differ from streaming releases in terms of diversity.

Media Contact

Barbra Ramos, bramos@stratcomm.ucla.edu; Willa Needham, willaneedham@ucla.edu

Nailing New Labor Models explores two approaches, High Road Training Partnerships (HRTPs) and sectoral boards, to addressing workplace conditions, job quality, and climate resilience in sectors where unionization and/or industry-wide changes are difficult. Through four in-depth interviews with expert community and union partners who have implemented these models, our report considers the opportunities and challenges in implementing these models for nail salon worker organizing and advocacy. We further assess their applicability and feasibility for the nail salon sector through four focus groups with nail salon workers and owners in California and Massachusetts.

Media Contact

Emily Jo Wharry, emilyjowharry@g.ucla.edu

To better understand driver pay and passenger fares in relation to the TLC’s minimum rates, Analysis of High Volume For-Hire Vehicle Data for New York City offers an analysis of publicly available data from the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission’s High Volume For-Hire Vehicle (HVFHV) trip database.
The report authors focused on HVFHV rides taken in February 2019, October 2019, April 2020, and April 2022 for non-Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles and were limited to rides beginning and ending in New York City. They analyzed approximately 50 million rides, exploring the passenger fares, driver pay, and commission fee companies are exacting from the fares per trip.

Media Contact

Eliza M. Bates, elizamargarita@gmail.com; Emily Jo Wharry, emilyjowharry@g.ucla.edu

Profile of Janitorial Workers in California provides a profile of private sector janitorial workers in California—who they are, their employment conditions and the economic vulnerabilities they face due to their low wages, employment status, and gender. The report uses an analysis of government data from the 5-year sample (2015–2019) of the American Community Survey (ACS) and a pooled 10 year sample (2011–2020) of the Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group (CPS ORG), as well as information collected by the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund (MCTF) to expand on the experiences of subcontracted janitors in California.

Media Contact

Emily Jo Wharry, emilyjowharry@g.ucla.edu

This is the ninth in a series of annual reports to examine relationships between diversity and the bottom line in the Hollywood entertainment industry. Part 1, which focuses on 2021 Hollywood theatrical and streaming films, was released in March 2022. This report, Part 2, considers the latest television season since the previous Hollywood Diversity Report release, the 2020-21 season. It examines 407 scripted broadcast, cable, and digital platform television shows from the 2020-21 season to document the degree to which women and people of color are present in front of and behind the camera. It discusses any patterns between these findings and conventional and social media audience ratings.

Media Contact

Barbra Ramos, bramos@stratcomm.ucla.edu; Willa Needham, willaneedham@ucla.edu

This reports provides a comprehensive analysis of California's Car Wash Worker Law consisting of a combination of quantitative data analysis of wage claim filings and qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with car washers, labor law attorneys, Deputy Labor Commissioners and industry stakeholders conducted between January and March 2022. Six major findings and four policy options highlight the need for increased personnel in the Labor Commissioner's Office as well as more punitive measures to prevent wage theft.

For the past five years, the UCLA Labor Studies Program has offered a course for students involved with the work for social justice, entitled Spirituality, Mindfulness, Self-Compassion and Social Justice Activism. In this course, students learn about the role of spirituality and mindfulness practice in the work of non-violence and social justice. With grant support from the UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute, the UCLA Labor Center conducted a survey of students who had enrolled in the course, and analyzed how the course teachings were continuing to benefit them today.

Media Contact

Media Inquiries: Citlalli Chávez-Nava, 310-562-0943, citlallichavez@ucla.edu