Insight & Commentary on California Workplace Law Issues & Developments
The California Employment Development Department (EDD) has released the 2024 Voluntary Plan Employee Contribution and Benefit Rate.
Employers with employees located in California are generally required to withhold and send state disability contributions to the EDD.
Of note, Senate Bill (SB) 951, which was signed in 2022, eliminated the Maximum Contribution and Taxable…
The California Employment Development Department (EDD) has released the Voluntary Plan Employee Contribution and Benefit Rates for 2023.
Employers with employees located in California are generally required to withhold and send state disability contributions to the EDD.
The 2023 rates are as follows:
| “Employee Contribution Rate” | 0.9% |
| “Taxable Wage Ceiling” (per employee per year) |
In 2016 California passed legislation that employers who do not sponsor an employee-retirement plan must participate in a state-run retirement program. This program became known as CalSavers.
While there have been legal challenges to CalSavers, the program persists. CalSavers provides an opportunity for employees to defer wages, through payroll deductions by the employer,…
All the way back in 2016, California passed legislation that employers who do not sponsor an employee-retirement plan must participate in a state-run retirement program. This program became known as CalSavers.
While there have been legal challenges to CalSavers, the program persists. The pilot phase of CalSavers launched in 2018 and the phase-in…
The California Employment Development Department (EDD) has released the Voluntary Plan Employee Contribution and Benefit Rates for 2021.
Employers are required to withhold and send state disability contributions to the EDD. The 2021 rates are as follows:
| Employee Contribution Rate | 1.2% |
| Taxable Wage Ceiling (per employee per year) | $128,298.00 |
| Maximum Contribution (per employee per |
…
Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 1159 (“SB 1159”) on September 17, 2020, which could expand the definition of injury under the workers’ compensation system to include illness or death resulting from COVID-19. In May, the governor had issued an executive order which created a presumption that any COVID-19-related illness of an employee shall be presumed…
On September 11, 2020, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 276 (“AB 276”), amending California’s tax law regarding the taxation of loans from qualified employer benefit plans to employees. The amendments track the provisions of the federal CARES Act on this issue, bringing much-needed uniformity between California and federal law governing this issue.
California and federal…
As California employers continue their efforts to weather this difficult and economically uncertain time, the state is also taking steps to assist California workers affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Governor Gavin Newsom recently announced several new initiatives to support California workers who have been affected by COVID-19.
Expansion of Call Center Hours at the Employment …
With an alarming number of American workers lacking adequate retirement savings, California and a handful of other states began implementing state-sponsored retirement savings programs. The CalSavers Retirement Savings Program (CalSavers) was first launched as a pilot program in 2018 and then expanded to all eligible employers in the state in July 2019 in order to…
As the confirmed cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) rises in the U.S., more states are issuing directives regarding employee cost-sharing for screening and testing for the virus. Testing for COVID-19 is free if performed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however, the testing is expected to be offered more broadly by commercial labs.
On…
