Institute for Research on Labor and Employment

With the federal government at a standstill on a stimulus package and the challenge of controlling the pandemic and establishing economic stability, the U.S. economy could spiral from a recession to a depression, according to a study by UC Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.

The future of business as usual in Berkeley is far from certain, even with emergency relief available to organizations and people most impacted by the coronavirus. Although the exact rate of job loss in Berkeley is unknown, the numbers are approximately proportional to national unemployment rates.

In addition to the rise, employees of most businesses will now also receive more paid sick leave, according to a city of Berkeley press release.

The study was conducted by economists Sylvia Allegretto, Anna Godoey, Michael Reich and Carl Nadler through the campus’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. It is one of the first studies to look at employment effects of minimum wages above $10, according to Nadler.

Many campus professors fear that potential cuts could harm present and future research or mean fewer available research positions for graduate students.

A report conducted at UC Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment found that the benefits of raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour will outweigh the costs, even within less affluent areas.

A policy brief recently published by the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment found children enrolled in Head Start benefit academically both in the short term and, to a lesser extent, the long term, refuting earlier research to the contrary.

Earlier this month, campus researchers published a study examining the possible effects of increasing the minimum wage in New York to $15 over the next five years.