On January 1, 2019, a number of new employment related laws took effect in California impacting employers. If you are a California business owner or employer, below are key changes with suggestions on how your business might comply, if it hasn’t already.

  • Minimum wage has gone up. The state minimum wage for business with 25 employees or fewer is $11.00/hour and those with 26 employees or more is now $12.00/hour. Many cities and counties have even higher minimum wage requirements, including Long Beach and both the City and County of Los Angeles.
    • Pay your employees minimum wage for your jurisdiction, including at least time and a half for over time.
    • The increase in minimum wage means a corresponding increase in state minimum salary for exempt employees, which is calculated as two times the minimum wage times 2080 (the number of work hours in a year, based on a 40 hour work week). In 2019, the minimum salary amount paid to exempt employees of small and large employers increased to $45,760 and $49,920 respectively.
  • Provide sexual harassment prevention training. Employers with more than 5 employees must provide 1 hour of training to all non-supervisory employees and 2 hours to all supervisory employees by January 1, 2020.
    • Conduct training for all employees before the end of 2019.
    • Train new employees within 6 months of hire.
    • Repeat training every two years.
    • Online training will be available on Department of Fair Employment and Housing Website. Check availability or subscribe for training alerts from DFEH, here, https://www.dfeh.ca.gov/resources/. Or download the DFEH Training Toolkit here.
    • Training may be broken into segments, provided that the total hourly requirement is met.
    • Create and maintain records of attendees, as well as dates and times of trainings.
  • Accommodate lactation breaks with privacy and time. Employers must provide a private place and break-time for employees who want to express milk for an infant child.
    • Establish a location that is a private room in close proximity to the employee’s work area. (May be the employee’s office, if its private).
    • Do not designate a bathroom or toilet stall at the lactation location (unless certain conditions are met.)
  • Don’t ask for salary history when hiring. Employers may not ask job applicants for prior salary history. Also, employers must provide a pay scale for the position to applicants who have had an initial interview, upon their request.
    • Employers may ask an applicant for their salary or pay expectation.
    • Determine pay scales for positions prior to interviewing applicants.
    • Employers are not required to provide pay scales to current employees.
  • Provide copies of payroll records. When requested, employers must provide copies within 21 days.
    • Don’t just make records available for copying, actually provide a copy of the records.
    • Employers may charge for actual costs of reproduction.
  • Employers protected from defamation claims from alleged harassers. Employers may answer questions regarding whether employer would rehire an individual, and whether a decision not to rehire is based on the former employee’s engagement in sexual-harassment.
  • Review settlement, agreement, and contract provisions related to sexual harassment. A number of new laws limit the extent to which an employer may require employees to waive their rights to disclose matters related to sexual harassment.
    • Settlements, contracts, employment agreements, etc., may not preclude employees from testifying against an employer in criminal or sexual harassment proceedings.
    • Settlement agreements may not preclude disclosure of information related to complaints of sexual assault, harassment, or discrimination based on sex.
    • Settlement agreements may preclude disclosure of settlement amount and claimant’s identify.