Ken Jacobs

Ken Jacobs is the Chair of the Labor Center, where he has been a Labor Specialist since 2002. His areas of specialization include health care coverage, the California budget, low-wage work, the retail industry and public policy. Recent papers have examined the impact that the national health reform law will have on California small businesses, their employees, the self-employed, and the state overall; the economic effects of various options for closing California’s budget deficit; and declining job-based health coverage in California and the U.S. He provided consultation to the City and County of San Francisco on the development of the San Francisco Health Care Security Ordinance and was a member of the Mayor’s Universal Health Care Council. Before joining the Labor Center, Ken was with the Bay Area Organizing Committee (BAOC), an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation, where he worked on improving wages and expanding health care coverage for low-wage workers.