News & Blog

We are excited to announce that Rework the Bay’s Equity at Work Council (EWC) partnered with the Bay Area Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink to create the first-ever “State of Bay Area Workers” data tool! This new interactive resource provides community leaders, organizers, policymakers, funders, and others data to explore, learn from, and use to spark conversation and make informed decisions that lead to the change we need.

The most talked-about indicators, like unemployment rates, only tell a fraction of the story, and can often obscure the reality that the majority of working people face, especially women and people of color. So, charged with the task of providing a clearer view of how working people are faring in each Bay Area county and the region as a whole, the EWC and PolicyLink developed a set of data indicators that tell a more nuanced story.

For example, earned income has grown by nearly 70% for very high-wage Bay Area workers in the last 30 years and shrunk by 9% for very low-wage workers. And only 43 percent of Black and 38 percent of Latinx full-time working people in the region are paid enough to cover the cost of living, compared to nearly 70 percent of their white counterparts.

Disaggregating data by wage level, race, and gender helps us understand who is benefiting from the wealth generated by the Bay Area’s booming economy–and makes a case for why a return to normal in the Bay Area is the last thing working people need.

Please check out the State of Bay Area Workers and tell us what you think!

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