California’s 2023 legislative session ended on October 14, 2023, with a slew of new bills affecting employers. Governor Gavin Newsom signed more than 30 employment-related bills.
Highlights of the new laws affecting employers in California are summarized below. Most of the laws take effect January 1, 2024, unless otherwise indicated.
Read the Full Article on
On October 4, 2023, California’s Governor signed Senate Bill (SB) 616, which increases the amount of paid sick leave employers are required to provide to California employees.
Beginning on January 1, 2024, employers must increase the amount of sick leave provided to California employees from three days/24 hours to five days/40 hours.
Accrual
Under
The COVID-19 State of Emergency may be over but many employers are still feeling the economic effects of the pandemic. In 2022, when COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (SPSL) was extended for the final time, the legislation also provided for a grant program for certain businesses to offset the costs of providing SPSL.
The
After vetoing a similar bill last year, on September 30, 2022, California Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 951, which increases wage replacement rates for lower wage earners under the state Paid Family Leave program (PFL) and State Disability Insurance (SDI) programs.
Starting in 2025, workers who earn 70 percent or less than the
On September 29, 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill (AB) 1949, which amends the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) to require covered employers to provide eligible employees with 5 days of bereavement leave.
AB 1949 applies to employers with 5 or more employees nationwide. Under the bill, employees who have been employed
California has extended COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (SPSL) through December 31, 2022. On September 29, 2022, California’s Governor signed Assembly Bill (AB) 152 which amends the existing SPSL law and provides for state grants to certain employers.
Changes to Supplemental Paid Sick Leave
The previous version of SPSL was passed in February 2022
In March 2022, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) dropped universal indoor masking, though masking was still required in certain places. By April 2022, most counties had also ceased universal indoor masking requirements. However, recently, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH) stated if the uptick in cases and hospitalizations continued, then
California’s Paid Family Leave (PFL) program, which is administered by the Employment Development Department (EDD) provides eligible employees with up to 8 weeks of wage replacement benefits when an employee is off work for certain qualifying reasons.
Businesses with employees using PFL may have increased costs such as cross-training existing staff and hiring and
Under California Labor Code 2802, employers are required to reimburse employees for necessary expenses incurred in executing their job duties for their employer. This reimbursement requirement may apply to the use of the employee’s personal vehicle for work purposes, such as driving between work sites. An employee’s regular commute does not typically require reimbursement, just
Early in the 2022 Legislative Session, Assembly Bill (AB) 2932 was introduced and was known as the four-day workweek bill. It sought to change when an employee would be paid one and one-half times their regular rate of pay by redefining the workweek.
Under current California law, overtime may be earned at one- and one-half