Work and Livelihoods
Workers have real power to shape how technology is developed, deployed, and experienced, both in the workplace and across the labor market.
What this looks like
- Prohibiting abusive forms of worker data collection and creating enforceable guardrails to prevent automated systems from determining people’s access to a livelihood.
- Bringing the workers who build and train AI systems, including data labeling and content moderation, into policy conversations to hold tech companies accountable for improving their labor conditions.
- Tracking how employers’ use of AI and other workplace technology is reshaping jobs across the labor market, and grounding policy responses in the shifting needs of workers.
Issues in this focus area
See the issues through one lens
Confronting corporate power is the foundation on which the other two areas rest, because when power concentrates, a handful of companies decide who shares in the wealth technology creates, what people can afford, and which jobs exist and on what terms.
Workers have real power to shape how technology is developed, deployed, and experienced, both in the workplace and across the labor market.
More on WorkPeople can see, understand, and contest the technological systems that shape what they can afford, where they can live, how their data is used, and whether they can get ahead.
More on Economic AgencyThe rules governing corporations, capital, and markets are strengthened and enforced, so that new entrants and new ideas have room to compete, and concentrated tech and financial power is reshaped in the public interest.
More on Corporate Power
Latest research
All Work and Livelihoods research-
How young Californians feel about AI
Big Tech is pouring money into shaping AI policy.
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A win for Californians: Gov. Newsom signs a slate of critical AI and economic fairness protections
September 30, 2026, marked a winning moment for California families, workers, and small businesses.
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Cunyan Ma is finding where the data workers are
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Hidden in plain sight: What our data work landscape revealed
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Big Tech doesn’t want you to know about these workers behind AI…
Recently, hundreds of Ireland-based workers critical to fine-tuning Meta’s AI products were laid off.
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How we get a tech future for everyday Californians
Californians are eager to see technology solve pressing social challenges and deliver real benefits for people’s lives.
In the legislature
TechEquity Action’s 2026 bills in this focus area. TechEquity Action leads the legislative work.
| Bill | What it does | Author | Position | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AB 2653 | Sweatshop Free AI Act | Lee | Sponsored | No outcome reported |
| AB 1331 | Prohibiting employers from using invasive workplace surveillance tools at work and in off-duty areas | Elhawary | Supported | Signed |
| AB 1609 | Right to Human Customer Services Act | Zbur | Supported | Signed |
| AB 1883 | Prohibiting employers from using invasive workplace surveillance tools at work and in off-duty areas | Bryan | Supported | Signed |
| AB 1898 | Workplace AI Right to Know Act | Schultz | Supported | No outcome reported |
| AB 1979 | AI tools cannot replace licensed clinical judgement | Bonta | Supported | Signed |
| AB 2027 | Robot Training Prevention Act | Ward | Supported | No outcome reported |
| AB 2155 | Arbitration agreements | Aguiar-Curry | Supported | Signed |
| AB 2545 | Workplace AI impact study | Schiavo | Supported | No outcome reported |
| AB 2575 | Safeguards for AI in health care | Ortega | Supported | Vetoed |
| SB 903 | Wellness and Oversight for Psychological Resources Act | Padilla | Supported | Vetoed |
| SB 947 | No Robo Bosses Act | McNerney | Supported | Signed |
| SB 951 | AI Job Killer Notice Act | Reyes | Supported | Signed |
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