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Workers’ wages in Alameda and Contra Costa counties rose during the COVID-19 pandemic recovery, but the gains were not enough for many to afford the region’s high cost of living, according to a UC Berkeley Labor Center report published Tuesday.
Researchers estimated that the median hourly wage in the East Bay region reached more than $35.43 in 2023, nearly $3 higher than in 2019, adjusting for inflation. Despite the higher individual income, which added up to an additional thousands of dollars per year, the number of workers living at or near poverty increased to nearly 97,000, or one in ten.
“The wage gains are really important and that is a true bright spot in the story, but in the aggregate, it didn’t really move the needle,” said Savannah Hunter, a senior researcher at the UC Berkeley Labor Center who co-authored the report. “A lot of people still don’t make enough to make ends meet in the East Bay.”…