Business

California Diversity Awards Celebrates Achievements and Highlights Growth of Diverse Small Businesses

The California African American Chamber of Commerce, the CalAsian Chamber of Commerce and Hispanic Chambers of Commerce hosted their third Annual Diversity Awards on June 27 in Sacramento. The awards luncheon celebrated corporate, legislative, and business leaders who are champions of small diverse businesses in California. The program also featured highlights from a report commissioned by the California Office of the Small Business Advocates (CalOSBA), aimed at understanding the significant impact small businesses have on the state.

Published

10 months ago

July 8, 2024

Oakland Post

The Ethnic Chamber Diversity Luncheon held in Sacramento on June 27. The audience listens to the report on the state of small diverse businesses in California. (CBM staff photo)

By Antonio Ray Harvey, California Black Media

The California African American Chamber of Commerce, the CalAsian Chamber of Commerce and Hispanic Chambers of Commerce hosted their third Annual Diversity Awards on June 27 in Sacramento.

The awards luncheon celebrated corporate, legislative, and business leaders who are champions of small diverse businesses in California. The program also featured highlights from a report commissioned by the California Office of the Small Business Advocates (CalOSBA), aimed at understanding the significant impact small businesses have on the state.

“We like to think of the economy as something where there’s always some government agency collecting information, but it’s remarkably hard to get into the trenches and figure out what’s really happening at the ground level,” said Chris Thornberg, an economist who authored the report.

“Last year was the beginning of pulling this together with the help of CalOSBA, the chambers and sponsors. This year, we expanded and improved the processes, adding data from the American Community Survey to get a better sense of the diverse business community.”

The report’s findings highlight the importance of small and diverse businesses in California. Collectively, they generated about $443 billion in 2019, representing nearly half a trillion dollars. Although this figure dropped slightly in 2020 due to the pandemic, their impact remained above $400 billion, accounting for about 8% of California’s overall output.

“That $414 billion would make our diverse small business sector the 24th largest state economy, larger than Oregon or South Carolina,” Thornberg noted. “These businesses support about 3.6 million jobs directly or indirectly.”

The report also indicated that diverse small businesses have shown resilience and growth in recent years.

“Despite various challenges, diverse small businesses have performed well,” said Thornberg. “The number of self-employed individuals and minorities in the state is up 10% from 2016, while overall small business numbers have contracted by about 15% over the same period. This growth is particularly evident in major regions like Los Angeles and San Bernardino, where a significant portion of the labor force comprises self-employed minorities.”

The success and growth of diverse small businesses in California are seen as a promising trend. “Los Angeles is home to the largest concentration of these businesses, followed by San Diego and San Bernardino,” Thornberg added. “In these regions, almost a third of the entire labor force is made up of self-employed minorities, showcasing the power and influence of these communities.”

Pat Fong Kushida, President and CEO of the California Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce thanked everyone for attending the event and highlighted the need for continuing to work together.

“Thank you so much for leaning in on that first report and giving us a strong foundation. We all push and pull. This is what we’re doing in the room today. There are a lot of pushers and a lot of pullers. Let’s work better together, and then we’ll achieve some of the goals that Chris outlined for all of us,” said Fong.

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The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 7 – 13, 2025

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May 9, 2025

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California Rideshare Drivers and Supporters Step Up Push to Unionize

Today in California, over 600,000 rideshare drivers want the ability to form or join unions for the sole purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid and protection. It’s a right, and recently at the State Capitol, a large number of people, including some rideshare drivers and others working in the gig economy, reaffirmed that they want to exercise it.

Published

2 weeks ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

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By Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌
California‌ ‌Black‌ ‌Media‌

On July 5, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into federal law the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Also known as the “Wagner Act,” the law paved the way for employees to have “the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations,” and “to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, according to the legislation’s language.

On April 8, the rideshare drivers held a rally with lawmakers to garner support for Assembly Bill (AB) 1340, the “Transportation Network Company Drivers (TNC) Labor Relations Act.”

Authored by Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), AB 1340 would allow drivers to create a union and negotiate contracts with industry leaders like Uber and Lyft.

“All work has dignity, and every worker deserves a voice — especially in these uncertain times,” Wicks said at the rally. “AB 1340 empowers drivers with the choice to join a union and negotiate for better wages, benefits, and protections. When workers stand together, they are one of the most powerful forces for justice in California.”

Wicks and Berman were joined by three members of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC): Assemblymembers Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood), Sade Elhawary (D-Los Angeles), and Isaac Bryan (D-Ladera Heights).

Yvonne Wheeler, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor; April Verrett, President of Service Employees International Union (SEIU); Tia Orr, Executive Director of SEIU; and a host of others participated in the demonstration on the grounds of the state capitol.

“This is not a gig. This is your life. This is your job,” Bryan said at the rally. “When we organize and fight for our collective needs, it pulls from the people who have so much that they don’t know what to do with it and puts it in the hands of people who are struggling every single day.”

Existing law, the “Protect App-Based Drivers and Services Act,” created by Proposition (Prop) 22, a ballot initiative, categorizes app-based drivers for companies such as Uber and Lyft as independent contractors.

Prop 22 was approved by voters in the November 2020 statewide general election. Since then, Prop 22 has been in court facing challenges from groups trying to overturn it.

However, last July, Prop 22 was upheld by the California Supreme Court last July.

In a 2024, statement after the ruling, Lyft stated that 80% of the rideshare drivers they surveyed acknowledged that Prop 22 “was good for them” and “median hourly earnings of drivers on the Lyft platform in California were 22% higher in 2023 than in 2019.”

Wicks and Berman crafted AB 1340 to circumvent Prop 22.

“With AB 1340, we are putting power in the hands of hundreds of thousands of workers to raise the bar in their industry and create a model for an equitable and innovative partnership in the tech sector,” Berman said.