Many California employers will need to expand their sexual harassment prevention training to include an anti-hate speech component by 2028. A new law adds a broad component to California’s already detailed harassment-prevention training obligations, and employers should begin reviewing their training programs now so they can update content and vendor arrangements well before the effective date.
What Happened?
California employers with five or more employees are already subject to sexual harassment prevention training obligations, and Governor Newsom just signed a bill (AB 1803) that will require that training to also cover anti-hate speech, beginning Jan. 1, 2028.
What Are the New Anti-Hate Speech Training Requirements?
Covered employers will be required to provide supervisors and employees with practical guidance on recognizing, reporting, and confronting workplace speech that “vilifies, humiliates, or incites hatred against people” based on certain protected characteristics, including because of a person’s race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, reproductive health decision-making, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, or veteran or military status.
The law does not require a wholly separate training program and does not increase the required duration of training. Moreover, AB 1803 specifies that if an employer’s training includes information about prohibited harassment and the prevention of abusive conduct based on protected characteristics, it will satisfy the new “hate speech” training requirement. Therefore, for many employers, their existing compliant sexual harassment prevention training may already be sufficient.
What Employers Should Do Now?
California employers should consider taking the following steps before the Jan. 1, 2028, effective date:
- Review Existing Training Content. Assess your current sexual harassment prevention training to determine whether it addresses prohibited harassment, abusive conduct, and workplace speech based on protected characteristics. For many employers, this will already be the case. If it does not, you will need to update your training content by Jan. 1, 2028.
- Coordinate With Training Providers. Ask internal training personnel and outside vendors and counsel whether they can incorporate practical content addressing the recognition, reporting, and confrontation of hate speech in the workplace. Work with counsel to help ensure compliance.
- Evaluate Reporting and Response Practices. Confirm that employees understand how to report concerns and that the company’s reporting channels and investigation practices are prepared to address complaints involving potentially hateful or abusive speech.
- Monitor Guidance. Watch for agency guidance that may clarify the scope of the new training requirement and how it may be integrated into existing harassment-prevention programs.
Benjamin M. Ebbink and Montana Massone are attorneys with Fisher Phillips in Sacramento. © 2026 Fisher Phillips. All rights reserved. Reposted with permission.
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