Ken Jacobs, chair, UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education

Ken Jacobs is the chair of the UC Berkeley Labor Center, where he has been a labor specialist since 2002. His areas of specialization include health care coverage, low-wage work, the retail industry and public policy. Recent papers have examined declining job-based health coverage in California and the U.S., the public cost of low-wage jobs, and transformations in the retail industry.

Jacobs 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.