Tucked inside Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s voluminous $143 billion budget proposal is a single-line spending provision that could mean big changes for California’s employment laws.
The governor’s plan allocates slightly less than $500,000 to revive the Industrial Welfare Commission, the five-member body that regulates workers’ wages, conditions and hours. The Legislature defunded � and effectively deactivated � the commission in 2004 amid complaints that it failed to consider a minimum wage hike. The proposed budget offers no specific reason for re-funding the board and, unlike many of the governor’s other spending proposals, was not announced with any fanfare.
