One other 12 months means one other time by which many within the HR house flip in direction of California, which has a repute for intensive employment legal guidelines and rules not seen in different states.
“Everyone is aware of California tends to have these new legal guidelines which are difficult, to say the least,” Michele Miller, chair of Cozen O’Connor’s west coast labor and employment legislation division, stated Dec. 11 in the course of the agency’s annual digital occasion on California labor legislation modifications.
2026 will give the state’s employers lots to wrap their heads round, from new legal guidelines on office notices and paid sick go away to one more minimal wage replace.
‘Know Your Rights’ discover necessities and designated emergency contacts (SB 294)
By Feb. 1, 2026, employers should present a stand-alone written discover to staff with particulars on an entire host of classes similar to staff’ compensation, immigration inspections, union organizing, concerted exercise and constitutional rights throughout the context of legislation enforcement interactions. The discover should be offered to present staff yearly and to new staff on the time of rent.
“The excellent news is that employers will not be tasked with developing with this discover,” stated Elena Hillman, member of the agency at Cozen. The legislation duties the state’s labor commissioner with offering a template discover that may be modified for an employer’s office. The commissioner additionally should revise the template as wanted.
Moreover, by March 30, 2026, employers should present staff the chance to call an emergency contact for conditions by which the worker is arrested or detained at work. Employers could be required to inform the contact if they’ve “precise data” of an worker’s arrest or detention throughout work hours or efficiency of job duties.
Training and coaching info requests (SB 513)
California accepted laws increasing the definition of “personnel information” to incorporate schooling and coaching information. Hillman stated this contains information for necessary harassment and discrimination coaching in addition to these associated to abilities coaching, software program or gear coaching or core competency coaching — although the statute doesn’t present an exhaustive checklist.
Employers within the state typically have been already required to maintain such information, however the brand new legislation requires that they be included in an worker’s personnel file. Present legislation permits staff to request their personnel file, and employers have 30 days to supply the information upon request.
Clarifications on paid sick go away for crime victims (AB 406)
In 2024, California handed AB 2499, which permitted coated staff to take time without work from work to hunt safety as a sufferer of qualifying violent acts, or if a member of the family is a sufferer. However the legislation was complicated, Hillman stated, and the state legislature revisited it this previous 12 months with AB 406.
The brand new legislation clarifies that employers should present time without work for workers who’re themselves victims of violence or have relations who’re victims, together with to attend judicial proceedings associated to coated crimes. It states that paid sick go away could also be used to attend such proceedings. AB 406 additionally expands the checklist of coated crimes.
Office transition info notices below Cal-WARN (SB 617)
Efficient Jan. 1, 2026, the state’s California Employee Adjustment and Retraining Act, also called Cal-WARN, would require employers to supply an expanded discover within the occasion of a coated mass layoff, termination, plant closure or facility relocation.
Particularly, the discover should reply whether or not the employer is coordinating with a neighborhood workforce growth board, or an identical entity, in order that affected staff have entry to a useful resource that may assist them by way of the transition. The discover should be included no matter whether or not the employer plans to take action and should embody a purposeful e mail tackle and phone quantity for the native board with an outline of its fast response actions.
The discover additionally should present staff an outline of CalFresh, the state’s meals help program, in addition to a hyperlink to the CalFresh web site.
Paid household go away for a ‘designated individual’ (SB 590)
Efficient July 1, 2028, California’s paid household go away program will enable staff to pick out one “designated individual” whose critical sickness they might be capable of take paid go away to take care of. The individual should be both associated to the worker by blood or have an affiliation with the worker that’s the equal of a household relationship. Staff should attest to the character of the connection below penalty of perjury.
‘Pay scale’ definition replace and pay knowledge reporting deadline extension to Could 2027 (SB 642, SB 464)
The Golden State made just a few updates to its pay fairness legal guidelines. California is one among a number of states with pay transparency necessities, and Gov. Gavin Newsom accepted an modification requiring that the pay ranges employers publish to the general public be a “good religion estimate” of the wage or hourly wages they anticipate to pay upon rent.
SB 642 additionally updates the language of the state’s gender-based pay discrimination prohibition to make clear that pay could not unlawfully differ between staff “of one other intercourse” fairly than the “reverse intercourse.” Individually, the legislation’s statute of limitations has been prolonged to 3 years and clarifies that the restoration interval for workers is ready at six years.
A separate legislation, SB 464, amended California’s pay knowledge reporting necessities. Efficient Jan. 1, 2027, the variety of job classes for which employers should report demographic, pay and hours labored knowledge might be expanded from 10 to 23. The primary knowledge assortment affected by the change would happen in Could 2027, Hillman stated, so employers have about one 12 months to arrange.
Protections for staff displaced by COVID-19 (AB 858)
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the state enacted a legislation to require employers to supply details about job openings to staff laid off on or after March 4, 2020, for causes associated to the pandemic. Employers additionally have been required to supply positions to such staff utilizing a choice system outlined by the legislation.
The provisions for the COVID-19-era displacement legislation have been set to run out Dec. 31, however ABA 858 extends the protections by way of 2026, ending Jan. 1, 2027.
Restrictions on requiring staff to pay employers again sure money owed (AB 692)
Efficient Jan. 1, 2026, California employers are prohibited from implementing contractual necessities that staff pay the employer, a coaching supplier or debt collector for sure money owed within the occasion the worker is terminated, with some exceptions.
The legislation is geared toward eliminating restrictions on worker mobility and isn’t retroactive, stated Nicole Perkin, additionally a member of the agency at Cozen. The checklist of exceptions contains gadgets similar to contracts associated to tuition prices for a transferable credential in addition to contracts for the receipt of discretionary or unearned financial fee that’s not tied to job efficiency.
So as to qualify for both of the 2 above exemptions, such contracts should be separate from any employment contract and should meet a wide range of different necessities, Perkin added. Notably, compensation can solely be required within the occasion that the worker chooses to voluntarily resign, or if the employer elects to fireside the worker for misconduct.
“Make it possible for human assets or whoever goes to be imposing this understands the definition of misconduct and that that’s going to be a excessive burden and onerous to satisfy,” Perkin stated. “Your run of the mill termination might be unlikely to fulfill that.”
Bias mitigation coaching replace (SB 303)
An worker’s evaluation, testing, admission or acknowledgement of a private bias made in good religion and solicited as a part of a bias mitigation coaching doesn’t, by itself, represent illegal discrimination, in keeping with the not too long ago enacted SB 303. The legislation individually affirms that bias mitigation coaching, by itself, isn’t illegal discrimination.
These provisions are noteworthy given the shift on variety, fairness and inclusion insurance policies on the federal stage; the U.S. Division of Justice particularly recognized race-segregated coaching as illegal discrimination in a doc revealed final July.
Wage modifications
California’s minimal wage is to be set at $16.90 per hour starting Jan. 1, 2026, although employers ought to remember that native governments could have set even greater charges, Hillman stated. Moreover, the state’s annual wage threshold for additional time pay exemption will improve to $70,304 — almost double that of the federal Truthful Labor Requirements Act.
