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
Over the last month, we have been highlighting some of the California labor laws that were recently signed into law. Two of these laws require immediate posting of notices in the workplace. Each notice has been added to our 2018 California All-On-One™ Poster. The two workplace posting changes are: Cal/OSHA Safety and Health Protection on Read more
For nearly twenty-five years, both the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) have required large employers, those with 50 or more employees, to provide their employees with 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to bond with a newborn, newly-adopted child or newly-placed foster child. Small businesses are, Read more
California just wrapped another busy legislative year passing more than a dozen new laws that will affect workers and employers. Today’s blog looks at two of these laws, both of which are aimed at removing barriers to employment – AB 1008 concerning an applicant’s criminal history and AB 168 concerning an applicant’s salary history. Overcoming Read more
In the wake of weakened federal protections, California has stepped up to increase awareness of the rights which transgender workers already possess under state anti-discrimination laws and address employment barriers. On October 13, Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 396, the Transgender Work Opportunity Act, into law. The Act, which goes into effect on January 1, Read more
