New Workplace Laws Take Hold in California

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The California State Legislature recently ended an active session, with Gov. Gavin Newsom signing many bills that will affect the workplace. Here's a summary of the new laws California employers need to keep in mind.

Pay Transparency

Senate Bill 1162 will require employers with 15 or more workers to include pay ranges in all job postings. It also will require employers with 100 or more employees to report the number of employees by race, ethnicity and sex for 10 job categories whose earnings fall within pay bands used by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in its Occupational Employment Statistics Survey. With each job category, the report must include the median and mean hourly rate for each combination of race, ethnicity and sex.

"The momentum of implementation of pay disclosure requirements has been swift and reflects a larger societal effort to address pay equity concerns," said Anne Dana, an attorney with King & Spalding in New York City. "As the pay transparency trend accelerates, jurisdictions are moving away from reactive obligations to provide pay information only upon request by an applicant or employee, and instead are moving toward laws that require proactive wage range disclosure along with more onerous disclosure requirements."

Time Off Work

A number of bills enacted into law this year expanded statutorily required time off work. These bills included:

• Assembly Bill 1041 will permit employees to take up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave to care for a designated person with a serious illness. The bill defines a "designated person" to mean any individual related by blood or whose association with the employee is the "equivalent of a family relationship."
• Assembly Bill 1949 will allow employees to take up to five days of unpaid bereavement leave upon the death of a family member. It applies to employers with five or more employees. "Several other states (Oregon and Maryland) and the city of Pittsburgh have recently enacted bereavement-leave laws, suggesting this may be an emerging trend," said Michael Kalt, an attorney with Wilson Turner Kosmo in San Diego.
• Senate Bill 1383 broadens the scope of the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) to cover private employers with five or more employees. "The expanded CFRA makes other changes, such as expanding the types of family members for whom leave can be taken, eliminating the requirement that eligible employees work at a worksite with 50 or more employees within 75 miles, and eliminating the key employee exception," explained Gary McLaughlin, an attorney with Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp in Los Angeles.
• Assembly Bill 152 extends the paid leave for workers affected by COVID-19 until Dec. 31. Workers can receive 40 hours of supplemental paid sick leave if they are unable to work or telework due to reasons related to COVID-19.
• Senate Bill 951 increases wage replacement rates for low-wage earners under the state Paid Family Leave (PFL) program and the State Disability Insurance (SDI) program. Starting in 2025, workers who earn 70 percent or less of the state's average wage will be eligible for 90 percent of their wages under the PFL and SDI programs. Currently, low-wage earners may be eligible for 70 percent of their regular wages under these programs.
• Senate Bill 1044 prohibits employers, in the event of an emergency condition, from taking adverse actions against employees for leaving or refusing to report to a worksite because they have a reasonable belief that the worksite is unsafe.
  

COVID-19 Notices

COVID-19 notice laws that were extended this year included:

• Assembly Bill 2693 extends the COVID-19 notice requirements until Jan. 1, 2024. Previously, employers had to provide individual notices to employees and others who may have been exposed to COVID-19 in the workplace. The new law allows employers to post a notice in the workplace for 15 days when there has been a COVID-19 exposure.
• Assembly Bill 1751 extends a rebuttable presumption established for workers' compensation purposes for COVID-19. Previous legislation established a rebuttable presumption that certain COVID-19 cases are work-related under certain circumstances, and it required employers to provide information about COVID-19 cases to their workers' compensation claims administrator. The new law extends those requirements until Jan. 1, 2024.
  

Other Laws

Other statutes enacted this year pertain to:

Off-duty marijuana use: Assembly Bill 2188 will prohibit employers from penalizing workers for using marijuana during their off-work hours. Employers can still fire or suspend workers for possessing, using or being impaired by marijuana while at work.

Fast-food regulations: Assembly Bill 257 sets up a 10-member Fast Food Sector Council, which will have authority to establish industrywide standards on wages, working hours and other working conditions at fast-food chains. The council's proposals will come before the legislature and take effect unless the legislature steps in to block it.

Unions for agricultural workers: Assembly Bill 2183 establishes a card-check process for agricultural employees to form a union under the Agricultural Labor Relations Act. Each January, agricultural employers will have to decide whether to agree to a labor peace compact. If the employer does not agree to sign a labor peace compact, then employees could form a union via card check without an election.

Retirement benefits: Senate Bill 1126 expands the definition of eligible employers that must participate in a state-run retirement program called CalSavers if they don't sponsor a retirement plan for employees.

Demographic reporting: Senate Bill 189 requires state agencies to record demographic data on employees who are descendants of enslaved people.

Work-sharing plans: Assembly Bill 1854 creates an alternative process for employers to submit work-sharing plan applications electronically. Employees can qualify for state unemployment benefits if they work less than their usual weekly hours of work for their regular employer as the result of the employer's participation in a work-sharing plan.