California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) makes sexual harassment in the workplace illegal. Under the law, employers have an affirmative duty to take reasonable steps to prevent harassment from occurring and to promptly correct harassing conduct. In addition, employers are responsible for taking certain specified measures to ensure a workplace that is free from Read more
The New Parent Leave Act (NPLA) – What’s New? For just over a year now, new parents in California who work for small employers have been exercising the same right to take child-bonding leave that new parents employed by large employers have enjoyed for the last twenty-five years. California’s New Parent Leave Act (NPLA), which Read more
Revised 2019 California IWC Wage Order Posters Have Released In addition to posting the California All-On-One Poster, California employers are required to post the Industrial Wage Commission Wage Order (IWC) that applies to their specific business. California has 17 different IWCs regulating the wages, hours and working conditions of employees in specific industries and occupations. Read more
Working moms face tough decisions following the birth of a child, including whether to go back to work after having a baby, how soon to go back, and whether to continue breastfeeding once she’s back at work. Often, her employer’s provision of the time and a place suitable for expressing breast milk may impact those Read more
On January 1, 2019, California employers will begin implementing two important changes in their obligations to employees. The first change should come as no surprise to employers – California’s minimum wage rate is increasing for 2019. Indeed, the minimum wage has been increasing incrementally since 2017. What may be unexpected is that beginning in 2019, Read more
Recent news of sexual harassment wrongdoing by public figures and the #MeToo movement has heightened public and political interest in the prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace. For more than a decade, California has made sexual harassment prevention a priority relying largely on its tough employee sexual harassment training requirements. State and Federal Read more
So-called “fair chance” laws, which limit when and how an employer can use an applicant’s criminal history in making pre-hire and employment decisions, have been steadily increasing over the last twenty years. There are 32 states and over 150 cities and counties that have adopted in some form fair chance policies. Some of these fair Read more
What is Prop 65? California’s Proposition 65 (“Prop 65”), officially known as the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, requires businesses to warn the public before knowingly and intentionally exposing them to chemicals “known to the State of California” to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. The state maintains a list of Read more
Why prohibit consideration of salary history? San Francisco employers will notice a new posting when they update their labor law posters this July. The San Francisco Consideration of Salary History Ordinance, which was signed into law last summer, prohibits employers from asking about or using a job applicant’s prior salary history in deciding whether to Read more
San Francisco Paid Parental Leave & Health Care Security Poster Updates Required Historically, San Francisco has been proactive in ensuring that employees who work in San Francisco receive certain benefits they might not otherwise obtain from their employers. Two of these benefits are paid leave for new parents and employer-paid health care. Beginning January 1, Read more