From paid sick leave to the minimum wage, there are new employment laws in California that took effect in 2023. If you’re an employer in the Golden State, here’s a recap of the changes you should know, plus actions you can take to get in compliance with the law.
Who – All California employers with five or more employees
What – Assembly Bill 1949 requires employers to grant employees five days of unpaid bereavement leave (that need not be taken consecutively) for the death of a family member, including a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, domestic partner or parent-in-law.
Bereavement leave can be unpaid, but employees can use any existing PTO, vacation or sick time while on bereavement leave and employers can request documentation of the death of the family member.
What you should doWho – All California employers with five or more employees
What – Assembly Bill 1041 expands employee California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and paid sick leave rights to allow an employee to take such leave to care for a "designated person," in addition to other family members previously specified by law. “Designated person” means any individual related by blood or whose association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship. The designated person may be identified by the employee at the time the employee requests the leave. An employer may limit an employee to one designated person per 12-month period for family care and medical leave.
What you should doWho – All California employers
What – Minimum wage increase and exempt salary increase
Statewide Minimum Wage
California’s minimum wage for all employers regardless of size increased to $15.50 per hour.
Exempt Employee Minimum Salaries
The minimum salary threshold for exempt employees increased to $1,240 per week ($64,480 per year) for employers regardless of their employee count.
The minimum hourly rate for exempt computer software employees will increase to $53.80 per hour (or an annual salary of $112,065.20).
Local Minimum Wages
The hourly minimum wage will also increase within individual cities in California — for example, West Hollywood will have three minimum wage requirements:
What you should do
Who – All California employers
What – There are several bills enacted:
Under existing law, if an employer receives a notice of potential exposure to COVID-19, they are required to take action within one business day of the notice, including providing written notice to all employees on the premises at the same worksite where they may have been exposed to COVID-19. This requirement is extended until January 1, 2024.
However, this bill provides an employer an additional method to satisfy the notification requirements by prominently displaying a notice for 15 days. The notice must include the dates on which an employee with a confirmed case of COVID-19 was on the worksite within the infectious period and the location of the exposure.
AB 2693 also removes the requirement that employers report cases to their local health departments.
Who – All California employers
What – Senate Bill 657 provides that in any instance in which an employer is required to physically post information, the employer may also distribute that information to employees by email with the document or documents attached.
What you should do
Who – All California employers
What – Senate Bill 1044 protects employees from retaliation for refusing to work in "emergency conditions." Employees will be entitled to leave work or not come in during emergency conditions if they have a reasonable belief that the workplace is unsafe. You can require employees to provide notice in advance when feasible or, if advance notice isn’t feasible, as soon as possible. This new law specifically entitles employees to use their cell phones or other devices to get emergency assistance, communicate with someone to make sure they’re safe, or assess the safety of a situation during an emergency condition.
An emergency condition means either:
A health pandemic does not qualify as an emergency condition.
What you should do
Who – All California employers
What – Assembly Bill 523 makes it unlawful to discriminate against an employee or job applicant based on their “reproductive health decision-making.”
Reproductive health decision-making includes, but is not limited to, a decision to use or access a particular drug, device, product or medical service for reproductive health.
What you should do
Who – All California employers
What – Beginning January 1, 2024, employers will be prohibited from discriminating against an employee or job applicant based on the person’s use of cannabis off the job and away from the workplace.
Employers may still conduct preemployment drug testing and refuse to hire someone based on a valid preemployment drug screening that doesn’t screen for non-psychoactive cannabis metabolites.
The new law also doesn’t permit an employee to possess, be impaired by or use cannabis on the job, or affect the rights or obligations of an employer to maintain a drug- and alcohol-free workplace.
What you should do
If you need assistance with identifying gaps in your employment law compliance, contact our Human Resources Outsourcing experts, or learn more about how to leverage your workforce to accelerate your business.
