California is becoming less equal every day. The state’s 100 richest residents had $815.5 billion in net worth as of September 2020, up 18% from 2019, according to Forbes. Yet Rey Justo and his family of six in Sacramento were living between a Honda Pilot and his in-law’s living room. The top 1% of Californians earned at least $659,000 in 2020.

With COVID-19 raging in the state, officials at California’s workplace safety agency in November vowed to fill as many vacancies as quickly as possible so it could carry out more inspections at hospitals, warehouses, factories and offices.

Four million Californians owe nearly $150 billion in student loans, according to LendingTree. Those borrowers now have more rights under a law that went into effect this year and gained teeth this month with a new ombudsman’s office empowered to review complaints about student loan providers. The law caps excessive late fees, and loan providers will be required to process payments in the best interest of borrowers under the law. Here’s what to know about the law, which advocates called the “s

Fully vaccinated California workers won’t have to wear masks at work, according to the latest update to the state’s COVID workplace safety rule released Friday. Those workers, as well as those who are not vaccinated, will also not have to practice social distancing. Masks will be required for those not fully vaccinated when working indoors or in vehicles. The rule also recommends masks for those not fully vaccinated if they work outdoors and can’t maintain physical distancing.

A California state board on Thursday narrowly rejected, then ultimately approved a plan that eases the requirement for employees to wear masks and practice social distancing. The vote came as board members said they were uncomfortable with moving forward with a plan that would have still required workers to wear masks indoors unless everyone else around them is fully vaccinated.

John Gomez, a Safeway worker in Napa, is anxious about what’s to come when California lifts its pandemic restrictions on masks and social distancing this month. He’s already seeing more people come into his store unmasked since federal health officials said fully vaccinated Americans don’t need to wear masks. That conflicts with California rules that people still have to wear face coverings in public until at least June 15.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is proud of the prosperity of California’s upper class, which he says has never done better. But he also wants to use some of their success to help lift up California’s working-class residents. “We have the resources,” said Newsom, referring to his family who earned $1.7 million in 2019. “I’m proud of the fact that some of the dollars that I’m putting back into the California coffers, as a taxpayer, are going to help those single moms out there.”

The Sacramento Bee is exploring the future of work in California as the state recovers from the coronavirus pandemic. The series is supported by the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rigorous and compelling reporting about responses to social problems. The COVID-19 pandemic was one for the record books for the retail industry.

Lizzet Aguilar knew to speak up when she couldn’t hug her son. As the pandemic raged, she said she had worked for weeks at McDonald’s in Los Angeles without getting masks. She saw her co-workers being sent to clean other stores where people were getting ill.

California grocery workers have spent the last year stocking shelves with toilet paper, dealing with those who refuse to wear masks indoors and watching coworkers fall ill with COVID-19. Now, those workers want their employers to pay up for their labor.

The U.S. House last week passed a bill that could be the biggest overhaul to labor law in decades if it can clear the Senate and reach President Joe Biden. The Protecting the Right to Organize Act, known as the PRO Act, contains a number of provisions that would make it easier for workers to organize. The bill, for instance, would change the definition of “employee,” allowing millions of gig workers such as rideshare drivers the right to organize and form a union.

More paid sick days. Stiff penalties for unsafe workplaces. Childcare paid for by employers. Those are some of proposals California legislators are pushing in new bills as they look to address the effects of the yearlong coronavirus pandemic.

Starting Monday, March 15, California will make a new group eligible for vaccines: those aged 16 to 64 with disabilities or preexisting conditions, including severe obesity. Those with a body mass index of 40 or higher can qualify for the vaccine. CDC data from 2019 found that more than a quarter of Californians had a BMI of 30 or higher.

Pandora Crowder over the last few months felt like she was jumping off a cliff as she prepared to take on a full-time job for the first time since 2007, moving to a position as a special projects coordinator for the Reinvent Stockton Foundation. Her rising income made her ineligible for CalFresh food stamps. She had to figure out how to get to her office. She had to figure out how to care for her 9-year-old daughter. Her rent at Conway Homes, a 436-unit public housing development in south Stockton, is usually tied to her income — meaning the more she made, the more she had to pay in rent.

California labor and economic leaders in a new report are calling for a “social compact” for workers, including ideas such as generating a million new jobs in clean energy and providing a federal and state jobs guarantee by 2030. Those were few of the ideas outlined in a report published Tuesday by the state’s Future of Work Commission, a group of leaders appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019 to look at how California can prepare its economy for the next decade and beyond.