Blog

Grow Your Skills

What are the employment laws updates for 2023 in California?

2023 will bring new positive changes for California workers. Positive changes will be witnessed by California workers as a result of changes in employment laws.

The new employment law changes were announced last year for California employers. If you are an employer or HR professional, you should be aware of these changes. Several laws have been signed by Governor Newsom in the last year, and some laws have been expanded. Here are a few of the most recent employment law changes:

1. Minimum wage: Starting on January 1, 2023, California’s minimum wage will rise to $15.50 per hour because of a law passed in 2016 that gradually increased the minimum wage from $10 an hour to $15 an hour. In accordance with the 2016 law, the minimum wage had to increase with inflation, and inflation has been high recently, so 50 cents were added to the minimum wage. California’s new minimum wage changes will benefit 3 million workers.

2. Covid-19 sick leave program: The federal government used to provide paid sick leave to cover COVID-19 and related time off, but that program expired in September 2021. Several states, including California, have created their own sick leave programs. According to California’s Covid-19 sick leave program, companies with 25 or more employees had to provide up to 80 hours of paid leave per year. Leaves were divided into two buckets of 40 hours each. Paid time off was approved for the following reasons: Isolation period, seeking a medical diagnosis, caring for a family member who is ill, and the child’s school closed due to COVID-19. Since the program expired on 31 December last year, it is no longer available.

3. Bereavement Leave law: According to this law, employers with five or more employees must now offer employees up to five days of unpaid leave following the death of a family member. There is no requirement that the leave is taken in one lump sum, but it must be completed within three months of the death of the family member. A family member is defined as a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, domestic partner, or parent-in-law of the employee. If an employee has worked for you for at least 30 days, he or she is eligible for bereavement leave. Furthermore, employees may use any available paid time off or PTO as a method of receiving pay during bereavement leave.

4. Reporting pay data: The federal equal employment opportunity agency requires companies with 300 or more employees to annually file information on their workers, and it is called Employer information report or EE01. In addition, California has its annual reporting, which is called California pay data reporting. Reporting pay data meet the same eligibility requirements as reporting EE01. If you are required to file EE01, you must also file California Reporting Pay Data. Due to the fact that the EE01 does not collect information on pay, the California report requires information on pay. Plus, you will have to provide headcount pay per hour for all your employees broken out by race, ethnicity, and gender for each job category.

5. Emergency rights of employees in emergency conditions: Employees are protected by this law in case of an emergency. The employer cannot take adverse action against a worker or threaten to take adverse action  (disciplining). When there is an emergency condition, you, the employer, can’t fire or discipline an employee who leaves work or refuses to report to work. If their workplace is in the affected area and they feel unsafe.

What exactly is an emergency situation? It is defined by the presence of either of the following:

a) Conditions of disaster or extreme threat to the safety of persons or property at the workplace or worksite caused by natural forces or a criminal act.

b) An order to evacuate a workplace, a worksite, a worker’s home, or a worker’s child’s school due to a natural disaster or a criminal act.

6. Pay transparency: California joins Washington, Colorado, New York City, and other locations in requiring employers to disclose pay ranges in job postings. Employers with 15 or more employees must now include salary ranges when posting jobs on Indeed, LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter, etc. You have to include a salary range wherever you post a job. In addition to that, in the past, you were required to provide the pay scale to the current position for active job applicants.  Not just job ads, companies also have to disclose pay ranges to the current employees if they requested. You, the employer, also keep a record of each employee’s job title and wages during their employment and for three years after they leave.

7. California family rights act: There is a change in the California Family Rights Act (CFRA). Recently, CFRA has been revised to cover employers with as few as five employees. A new expansion is being made to this law. In accordance with CFRA, you are allowed to take a family leaves to care for your own medical condition or that of a family member. Family members include spouses, children, adults children, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, and parents-in-law. With the latest update to this law, a designated person has been added to the eligibility list. The term designated person refers to anyone who is related by blood or whose relationship with the employee is equivalent to a family relationship.

Conclusion

Inflation and other changes at the national, state, and global levels have led to changes in many laws. The employment laws are also undergoing changes this year, so if you are an employer or HR, you should be aware of new laws that are coming this year as well as the changes to the old laws.

Be the first one to get latest industry news

SHARE NOW

Disclaimer:
We do not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability and accuracy of the information provided on this website. Any action you take upon the information on this website is strictly at your own risk, and Compliance Prime will not be liable for any losses and damages in connection with the
use of our website.

10 productivity hacks

Get Free E-book

Thanks, your free e-Books is on its way

Check your email to download the eBook. If you don't see the email, check in your spam folder as well.