Depends what you mean by 'it works'. In 2016 the US had 2000 people becoming millionaires every day. It depends what your goals are. If you want to rest, maybe go to France.
'Protections' have, throughout history, negatively impacted the workers. Minimum wage laws, which artifically inflated the cost of low skill labour, resulted in a drastic drop in teenagers being hired - with black teenagers being disproportionately affected. Americans with Disabilities Act, which forced employers to accomodate people with disabilities if they hire them, resulted in less employment for that group. Unions have resulted in MILLIONS of manufacturing jobs leaving the country. And things like this are just going to usher in automation at a faster rate.
California is, yet again, placing policies into place that will further tank their economy while, yet again, thinking its doing the right thing and happy because they can act morally superior.