California lawmakers approve $600 stimulus payments for lower-wage workers

People wait in line for food boxes in Los Angeles.
(Image credit: Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images)

The California state Legislature approved a $7.6 billion COVID-19 economic relief package on Monday that includes $600 stimulus payments to residents earning $30,000 a year or less and more than $2.1 billion in grants and fee waivers for small businesses.

The stimulus payments will be delivered quickly, a spokesman for the California Department of Finance told the Los Angeles Times — on average, about four to five weeks after a person files their 2020 state tax returns. About 5.7 million payments will be made, totaling $2.3 billion, to help "lower-wage workers" who have been "disproportionately impacted" by the coronavirus pandemic, state Sen. Nancy Skinner (D) said.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.