Creating Good-Paying Jobs

No one who works full time should live in poverty. We have to create more opportunities for people to lift themselves into the middle class and thrive. Throughout my career, I have worked across the aisle to ensure people have the chance to succeed, secure a good-paying job and live their own American Dream story.

That’s why I fought to get our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law signed into law in 2021, a landmark investment in the Central Coast that will create thousands good-paying union jobs by:

  • Repairing hundreds of miles of roads and highways and bridges that are in disrepair or beyond their lifespan
  • Expanding high-speed internet to communities that still lack critical broadband connectivity
  • Creating clean energy jobs by adding additional EV charging stations, clean transit options, and capping leaking oil and gas wells up and down our coast.
  • Investing in wildfire prevention, drought mitigation, and climate weatherization, creating new jobs that will help keep our communities safe

In the House, I've also backed bills to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, and to address the gender pay gap and demand pay equity. People should be compensated fairly for their hard work. 

As Santa Barbara County Supervisor, I helped secure $100 million in local transportation funds to widen our highways, repair our bridges and roads and boost our economy. Upgrading our infrastructure is critical to our long-term economic growth and key to expanding the middle class. It puts people back to work, helps reduce traffic, and allows our businesses to get their products to market faster.

I believe protecting the environment and creating good-paying jobs can go hand in hand. In Santa Barbara, we established the EMPower energy efficiency program for our residents and approved the Cuyama Solar Project, the first large-scale solar project in our county. These types of programs have the potential to produce highly skilled, good-paying jobs and set us on a path for a sustainable future.

Here at home and back in Washington, I am committed to amplifying the voices of working families and fighting for change that lifts us all up.