The board that governs our negotiations—but not our paychecks.

You’re in negotiations with your county. You’ve laid out the rising costs of rent, food, gas, and medical bills. You’ve explained how impossible it is to keep caring for your client on wages that fall further behind every year. The county listens, delays, and finally offers pennies that don’t even scratch the surface of what’s needed. So what happens next? Who protects your paycheck? Who makes sure counties can’t keep offering scraps while caregivers sink deeper under the cost of living? The answer is PERB — the Public Employment Relations Board. It’s the only place these disputes can go. It is our sole resource when counties refuse to bargain fairly. But here’s the catch: PERB doesn’t guarantee fairness or a living wage. It only enforces the rules of bargaining—not the outcomes. That’s why caregivers can play by the book, fight for years, and still end up with wages far below what it takes to survive. Short version: California’s Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) polices the rules of bargaining, not the outcomes. If counties keep “moving” (even a little), PERB generally won’t force raises. Its tools are process-based (good-faith bargaining, no unilateral changes, fact-finding), and the fact-finding step is non-binding. That’s why wages can lag the cost of living for years.

What PERB is (and isn’t)

• What it is: PERB is California’s labor board for public-sector workers. It hears unfair practice cases (e.g., refusing to bargain in good faith, retaliating against union activity) under laws like the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (MMBA), which covers counties and IHSS public authorities.
• What it isn’t: PERB is not a wage commission. It doesn’t set “fair” pay or cost-of-living rates. It enforces process: meet, confer, don’t cheat.

How an IHSS wage dispute actually moves

1. Bargaining. Union and county/public authority meet and confer.
2. Impasse. If they’re stuck, either side can declare impasse and request fact-finding (added by AB 646 in 2011).
3. Fact-finding panel. A neutral panel reviews data and issues recommendations. PERB’s role here is procedural—PERB does not decide whether an impasse is “real” or what the wages should be. Recommendations are advisory, not binding.
4. After fact-finding. If there’s still no agreement, the public employer can (in some cases) implement parts of its last, best, and final offer—but only after true impasse and good-faith bargaining “from inception through exhaustion” of required procedures.

Why this doesn’t deliver fair wages by itself

• Process over outcomes. PERB can order a county to bargain right, but it can’t order “pay $X.” If a county keeps showing up with tiny moves, PERB sees “bargaining,” not a case to take over.
• Fact-finding isn’t binding. Panels can urge raises, but counties don’t have to adopt them. (They must publish them publicly, but “publish” ≠ “pay.”)
• Post-impasse leverage favors employers. If employers clear the good-faith bar, they may implement parts of their offer—another reason low offers can persist.
• PERB’s emergency tool is narrow. PERB can seek injunctive relief to preserve the process (e.g., stop a unilateral change), not to impose wage levels.

How IHSS fits (and what’s changing)

• Today (local): By long-standing rules, counties had to act as, or create, an IHSS employer of record (public authority/nonprofit) for bargaining. That’s why your wage fight is county-by-county.
• Talk of change in 2025: AB 283 (Haney). This bill would create the IHSS Employer-Employee Relations Act (IHSSEERA) and shift bargaining to the state. On paper, it could reduce county-by-county disparities. But a bill is not a raise. California also promised a high-speed rail back in 2008—have you seen one yet? Until AB 283 is actually signed, funded, and enforced, it’s just talk. And even if it passes, it could take years before caregivers see a dime. Caregivers cannot afford to sit down and wait while wages keep falling behind.

Where the bias comes from: the laws themselves

The reason PERB doesn’t guarantee “fair” wages or inflation adjustments is simple: the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (MMBA) and related statutes only require good-faith bargaining. They do not:

• Set wage standards.
• Require cost-of-living adjustments.
• Define fairness beyond the obligation to meet and confer.

PERB enforces those laws as written. That means the system itself was designed to protect county budgets, not worker incomes. As long as counties “bargain” and avoid outright bad-faith behavior, the law is on their side. Caregivers can spend years negotiating without ever catching up to inflation. In short: the authority comes from state law, and that law is written to privilege counties’ financial control. Changing outcomes requires changing the statute—either by adding cost-of-living floors, binding arbitration, or stronger definitions of good-faith bargaining.

So what would have to change to actually protect caregivers?

Policy ideas that would move PERB from “referee of process” to outcomes that matter:

1. Make fact-finding binding for IHSS. Convert advisory reports into interest arbitration or binding awards when parties deadlock past a deadline. (Right now, AB 646’s fact-finding is non-binding.)
2. Statutory wage floors tied to cost of living. Set minimum county (or statewide) IHSS wage benchmarks indexed to regional COL, with PERB ensuring compliance as a legal obligation (not just a bargaining topic).
3. Hard timelines + penalties. Require mediation → fact-finding → resolution on a clock, with financial consequences for stalling (e.g., interest on retro, state back-fill triggers).
4. Stronger good-faith standards. Clarify in MMBA/IHSSEERA that token movement on wages does not satisfy good faith where cost-of-living gaps widen; authorize PERB to order make-whole remedies that include retro pay when counties stonewall.
5. Shift to statewide bargaining (AB 283). One table could reduce “race to the bottom” county comparisons and align wages with state budget choices. But only if it’s passed and enforced.
6. Transparency upgrades. Keep the current rule that fact-finding recommendations must be made public—and add plain-language fiscal disclosures so communities can see when counties ignore neutrals.

What caregivers should know (and say) right now

• PERB enforces the rules, not the raise. If a county meets, moves a little, and doesn’t break the law, PERB won’t order a number. That’s a feature of the current statutes, not PERB “siding with counties.”
• Your lever today: document bad-faith patterns (surface bargaining, unilateral changes, data withholding) and use fact-finding to build the public record.
• Your lever tomorrow: don’t wait on AB 283. Push for statewide reforms, but keep fighting locally. Real change only comes when caregivers refuse to sit down and shut up.

What exactly does the law say?

Here’s the relevant language from the Meyers–Milias–Brown Act (MMBA)—California’s law governing local public-sector labor relations, including IHSS: “The governing body of a public agency … shall meet and confer in good faith regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment … ‘Meet and confer in good faith’ means … personally to meet and confer promptly upon request by either party and continue for a reasonable period of time in order to exchange freely information, opinions, and proposals, and to endeavor to reach agreement on matters within the scope of representation…” — Gov. Code §3505 (emphasis added) Code Publishing Rains Lucia Stern St. Phalle & Silver

That’s it. The law:

• Defines how the parties must bargain (promptly meet, listen, swap ideas).
• Does not define a goal—there’s no requirement to reach agreement, let alone to match inflation or meet a living-wage threshold.
• Does not require wages to keep pace with cost of living or inflation.

Why this matters

• No inflation guardrails. Even if living costs rise, the statute doesn’t mandate adjustment; it only demands that both sides negotiate.
• “Token movement” qualifies as “good faith” as long as the formal steps are followed. PERB can’t enforce fairness—just procedure.
• Counties get to control pace and offer levels. Without binding expectations, wage increases can be delayed, watered down, or ignored entirely.