The Brief

The wage gap for Latina workers in California is no secret. For any number of reasons, including a concentration in low-paying occupations and barriers to obtaining education and career training, the Latina workforce has always earned less than other groups in the state.

Even so, a recent report on the issue is startling. The California Budget & Policy Center found that Latinas in California earn just 44 cents for every dollar made by white men in the state — the worst such wage gap in the nation.

Further, California’s efforts to improve that ratio haven’t produced much. According to the center’s research, although Latina workers’ wages are growing at a higher rate than white men, their wage gap has shrunk by only a couple of cents over the past eight years — and it would take almost 130 years to close the gap entirely.

“We think of ourselves as a progressive state, but what we’re doing right now is not working,” said Hannah Orbach-Mandel, a policy analyst at the center. “We can’t just let the status quo and current policies stand.”

There are a couple of structural and social issues baked into this wage gap. Among other things, Latinas have long worked in large numbers in California industries like hospitality and care work. Those jobs not only pay poorly, but they’re subject to fluctuations in availability, along with reductions in hours and layoffs.

Latinas are also often the primary caregivers for their families, which can limit career opportunities in part because of a dearth of affordable child care, said Silvia González, a research director at UCLA’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute.

That’s a huge piece of the puzzle. Orbach-Mandel said research shows that a single mother with a school-age child in California will spend 61% of her income on child care — “A pretty staggering figure,” the analyst said. The same lack of access to child care hinders many Latinas who want to get a college or graduate degree, which might help them find better paying work.

Immigration and language issues also factor in. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, Latinas living with partners and children in the state are much more likely than their white counterparts to be noncitizens, and more than a third have limited proficiency in English. Both of those are huge barriers to upward mobility in the job market.

Partly as a result, the wage gap for Latinas is profound. Women of every other ethnic group in the state earn more per dollar than Latina workers when compared with white men. White women lead that list, earning 80 cents for every dollar earned by white men — nearly twice what Latinas earn.

Latina workers have made small wage gains over the past several years, Orbach-Mandel said. California’s steadily rising minimum wage has made a difference, researchers say, and the $20 per hour fast-food wage, which went into effect in April, is boosting pay for hundreds of thousands of full- and part-time workers, many of them Latinas.

But any long-term growth in wages for Latinas will be tied to their moving into jobs in better sectors of the economy, or to positions of greater responsibility within the industries where they currently work. That’s significantly about education — and lowering some of the barriers to it.

UCLA’s González feels the issue deeply. González, who directs climate, environmental justice and health research at the Latino Policy & Politics Institute, is a onetime high-school dropout who eventually rose to earn a PhD in urban planning. She needed child care help along the way.

“I understand the critical role that child care at my community college played in enabling me to work and stay in school,” González said. “Expanding degree programs and child care access in community colleges would enable Latinas to get the child care they need to remain in the workforce and pursue career advancement.”

Building out a system of more affordable child care is a critical piece, Orbach-Mandel said. Policymakers should also consider targeting higher wages in fields where Latina workers are overrepresented, like care, restaurant and hotel work, and creating a more comprehensive and accessible safety net so that a low-wage job doesn’t trap Latinas in a cycle of poverty.

Further, “We need holistic policy approaches that meet the needs of Latinas and our community as a whole,” González said. “For instance, investing in workforce development programs to prepare Latinas for higher-wage sectors like the medical field can break the cycle of occupational segregation while also improving health care access within our communities.”

It’s a state issue, not an ethnic one. According to UCLA’s research, there are more than 3.3 million Latina workers in California. Among workers ages 16 to 44, Latinas outnumber women in all other major racial and ethnic groups.

And they may yet be a sleeping giant in terms of their potential positive impact on the state’s economy. The Public Policy Institute of California noted in September that as of 2022, there were more than 840,000 working-age Latinas not participating in the labor force — nearly half of them noncitizens.

As California’s population continues to age, policies that encourage those Latinas to enter and remain in the workforce, as well as those that create pathways to citizenship, may well be critical to the state’s long-term economic growth. Raising wages in low-paying jobs and improving access to reasonable child care are two great places to start.

This on-and-off rain is looking like good news ... for wildflower lovers.

We talked to Katie Tilford, our go-to wildflowers expert at the Theodore Payne Foundation here in L.A., which is dedicated to native plants and wildflowers in Southern California.

And she is holding out hope the rains this week and next will be just what we need to see California poppies and more bloom big in the upcoming weeks.

"A little more rain would be nice," she said, "Then I think we’ll have a really good bloom this year. Either way, I think there’s going to be some flowers for sure … but a little more rain would really just kick things up a notch.”

And as for the question we always ask this time of year … will it be a superbloom kind of year?

Only Mother Nature knows for sure. We plant nerds also know that that the term superbloom gets thrown around with regularity during wildflower season, even though it refers to very specific conditions created by a potent cocktail of early rains, cool temps, hot temps, and late rains. So, we repeat: Stay tuned.

But Tilford says she’s already seeing signs there will be plenty of wildflowers to enjoy in the coming weeks, so you might want to make a plan to get out there.

One surefire spot: the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, when the poppies hit full bloom. There is a live cam to help you time your trip for the best blooms.

Another great resource is also the wildflower hotline hosted by Theodore Payne. Starting in March, it will be updated each Friday with the latest wildflower news and tips on where to see it all. Call: 818 768-1802, Ext. 7. 

An annual meeting of the nation's governors that has long served as a rare bipartisan gathering is unraveling after President Donald Trump excluded Democratic governors from White House events.

The National Governors Association said it will no longer hold a formal meeting with Trump when governors are scheduled to convene in Washington later this month, after the White House planned to invite only Republican governors. On Tuesday, 18 Democratic governors also announced they would boycott a traditional dinner at the White House.

"If the reports are true that not all governors are invited to these events, which have historically been productive and bipartisan opportunities for collaboration, we will not be attending the White House dinner this year," the Democrats wrote. "Democratic governors remain united and will never stop fighting to protect and make life better for people in our states."

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican who chairs the NGA, told fellow governors in a letter on Monday that the White House intended to limit invitations to the association's annual business meeting, scheduled for Feb. 20, to Republican governors only.

"Because NGA's mission is to represent all 55 governors, the Association is no longer serving as the facilitator for that event, and it is no longer included in our official program," Stitt wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press.

The governors' group, which is scheduled to meet from Feb. 19-21, is one of the few remaining venues where political leaders from both major parties gather to discuss the top issues facing their communities. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that Trump has "discretion to invite anyone he wants to the White House."

"It's the people's house," she said. "It's also the president's home, so he can invite whomever he wants to dinners and events here at the White House."

Representatives for Sitt and the NGA didn't comment on the letter. Brandon Tatum, the NGA's CEO, said in a statement last week that the White House meeting is an "important tradition" and said the organization was "disappointed in the administration's decision to make it a partisan occasion this year."

In his letter to other governors, Stitt encouraged the group to unite around common goals.

"We cannot allow one divisive action to achieve its goal of dividing us," he wrote. "The solution is not to respond in kind, but to rise above and to remain focused on our shared duty to the people we serve. America's governors have always been models of pragmatic leadership, and that example is most important when Washington grows distracted by politics."

Signs of partisan tensions emerged at the White House meeting last year, when Trump and Maine's Gov. Janet Mills traded barbs.

Trump singled out the Democratic governor over his push to bar transgender athletes from competing in girls' and women's sports, threatening to withhold federal funding from the state if she did not comply. Mills responded, "We'll see you in court."

Trump then predicted that Mills' political career would be over for opposing the order. She is now running for U.S. Senate.

The back-and-forth had a lasting impact on last year's conference and some Democratic governors did not renew their dues last year to the bipartisan group.
Copyright 2026 NPR

A booming industry that charges veterans for help in obtaining the benefits they earned through military service must shut down or dramatically change its business model in California by the end of the year under a new law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Tuesday.

The law prohibits unaccredited private companies from billing former military service members for help with their Department of Veterans Affairs claims.

Technically, it was already illegal under federal law to charge veterans for that work, but Congress 20 years ago removed criminal penalties for violations, and scores of private companies emerged, offering to speed up and maximize benefit claims.

“We owe our veteran community a debt of gratitude — for their years of service and sacrifice," Newsom said in a written statement. "By signing this bill into law, we are ensuring veterans and service members get to keep more money in their pockets, and not line the coffers of predatory actors. We are closing this federal fraud loophole for good.”

Critics call the private companies “claim sharks” because their fees are often five times the monthly benefit increase veterans obtain after using their services. CalMatters in September, for instance, interviewed a Vietnam-era veteran who was billed $5,500 after receiving benefits that would pay him $1,100 a month.

Depending on a disability rating, a claim consulting fee under that model could easily hit $10,000 or more.

“We owe it to our veterans to stand with them and to protect them from being taken advantage of while navigating the benefits they've earned,” said Sen. Bob Archuleta, a Democrat representing Norwalk. Archuleta, a former Army officer, carried the legislation. “This is not about politics; it's about doing what's right. Making millions of dollars on the back of our veterans is wrong. They've earned their benefits. They deserve their benefits.”

California’s new law is part of a tug-of-war over how to regulate claims consulting companies. Congress for several years has been at a stalemate on whether to ban them outright, allow them to operate as they are or regulate them in some other way.

California is among 11 states that have moved to put the companies out of business, while another group of mostly Republican-led states has legalized them, according to reporting by the veteran news organization The War Horse.

That split in some ways reflects the different ways veterans themselves view the companies. The bill had overwhelming support from organizations that help veterans file benefits claims at no cost, such as the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, as well as from Democratic Party leaders, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.

But the VA’s claims process can take months and sow uncertainty among applicants. Several of the claims consulting companies say they have helped tens of thousands of veterans across the country, and that they have hundreds of employees.

Those trends led some lawmakers to vote against the measure, including Democrats with military backgrounds.

“We're going to say to you, ‘Veteran, you know what, I don't know if you are too stupid or too vulnerable or your judgment is so poor you can't choose yourself,'” said Sen. Tom Umberg, a Democrat and former Army colonel, during a debate over the measure last month.

The new law was such a close call for lawmakers that nine of 40 senators did not vote on it when it passed that chamber last month, which counts the same as a “no” vote but avoids offending a constituency that the lawmaker wants to keep.

It was also one of the 10 most-debated measures to go before the Legislature last year, according to the CalMatters Digital Democracy database. Lawmakers spent 4 hours and 39 minutes on the bill at public hearings in 2025 and heard testimony from 99 speakers.

Two claims consulting companies spent significant sums hiring lobbyists as they fought the bill, according to state records. They were Veterans Guardian, a North Carolina-based company that spent $150,000 on California lobbyists over the past two years; and Veterans Benefit Guide, a Nevada-based company that spent $371,821 lobbying on Archuleta’s bill and a similar measure that failed in 2024.

Those companies view laws like California’s as an existential threat. Both have founders with military backgrounds. Veterans Benefit Guide sued to block New Jersey’s law prohibiting fees for veterans claim consulting, and a federal appeals court sided with the company last year.

"This was the hardest bill I’ve had to work on since I’ve been in the Legislature," said Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo, a Santa Clarita Democrat who supported the law. "We know why that is, because there was so much money on the other side."

Charlotte Autolino, who organizes job fairs for former military service members as the chairperson of the Veterans Employment Committee of San Diego, criticized Newsom’s decision to sign the law. She spoke to CalMatters on behalf of Veterans Benefit Guide.

“The veterans lose,” she said. They lose the option. You’re taking an option away from them and you’re putting all of the veterans into one box, and that to me is wrong.”

But David West, a Marine veteran who is Nevada County’s veterans service officer, commended Newsom. West was one of the main advocates for the new law.

“The veterans of California are going to know that when (Newsom) says he’s taking care of everybody, he’s including us; that he values those 18- and 19-year-olds who are raising their hands, writing a blank check in the form of their lives; to then ensure that they aren’t writing checks to access their benefits,” West said.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.