New Laws to Impact the Workplace in 2023

BY PERRY SMITH SCV Business Journal Editor

Of the nearly 1,000 new laws that were passed by legislators in 2022, dozens affected the Santa Clarita Valley business community.

In fact, in the last 12 months, 997 laws were chaptered, or signed into law with the governor’s signature, according to the secretary of state’s website.

For industry, laws that impact everything from leave of absence to discrimination to pay scale were mentioned in a recent briefing from CalChamber, the statewide Chamber of Commerce.

The statewide business-advocacy organization’s “white sheet,” looks at the laws as well as how they can impact employers big and small.

Here are some of the policies most likely to impact business owners and managers in 2023:

Minimum Wage/Transparency

The law that might impact the most employers and their workers in California is the new minimum wage law, which was passed through Senate Bill 3 in the Legislature.

Starting Jan. 1, the minimum wage is set for $15.50 per hour, regardless of the size of the company. The state passed a series of graduated pay increases starting in 2017, which steadily raised the rate over several years from $10 per hour.

The law also raisese the minimum salary in California to approximately $64,480 per year, or twice what minimum wage is.

When the bill was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown, there were approximately 7 million hourly workers in the state, with roughly 2.2 million of them earning the minimum wage, according to a legislative analysis by the Assembly’s Appropriations Committee.

Starting Jan. 1, employers with at least 15 employees now have to disclose a pay range for a job posting, according to Senate Bill 1162.

The law also requires an employer to maintain records of a job title and wage rate history for each employee for a specified timeframe, to be open to inspection by the Labor Commissioner, according to Leginfo.org

The (law) also requires an employer, upon request, to provide to an employee the pay scale for the position in which the employee is currently employed, according to the text of the legislation

Paid Sick Leave

Assembly Bill 1041 expands the class of people for whom an employee may take leave to care for to include a designated person, according to the text of the law.

The bill defines “designated person” to mean any individual related by blood or whose association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship. The law also authorizes a designated person to be identified at the time the employee requests the leave.

The bill would authorize an employer to limit an employee to one designated person per 12-month period. The Requires an employer with at least 5 employees (rather than at least 50 employees) grant an employee request to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for family care and medical leave if the employee has had 180 days of service with the employer.

AB 1949 makes bereavement leave a protected leave of absence, meaning an employee is entitled to five days of leave upon the death of a family member.

SB 951 prolongs the wage-replacement rate for the state’s paid family leave, which were scheduled to end in 2023. The new law also increases the rate from 70% to 90% in 2025.

Workplace Discrimination

While AB 2188 was passed last year, it won’t actually start being enforced until 2024.

Starting Jan. 1 of that year, an employer can’t discriminate against a person in hiring, termination or any term or condition of employment, or otherwise penalize a person, if the discrimination is based upon the person’s use of cannabis off the job and away from the workplace — except for preemployment drug screening, as specified, or upon an employer-required drug screening test that has found the person to have nonpsychoactive cannabis metabolites in their hair, blood, urine or other bodily fluids, according to leginfo.org.

Workplace Safety

SB 1044 would prohibit an employer, in the event of an emergency condition, from taking or threatening adverse action against any employee for refusing to report to, or leaving, a workplace or worksite within the affected area because the employee has a reasonable belief that the workplace or work site is unsafe, except as specified.

The bill would also prohibit an employer from preventing any employee, including employees of public entities, as specified, from accessing the employee’s mobile device or other communications device for seeking emergency assistance, assessing the safety of the situation or communicating with a person to confirm their safety.

1. In terms of looking ahead, the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce also identified a few of its top legislative priorities for 2023, which include the following, among others that can be found at SCVChamber.com:Oppose attempts to raise the statewide cap on local sales and use taxes.

2. Promote a clean energy resource mix to support consumer choice, ensure reasonable, and reliable energy service.

3. Oppose legislation that would prohibit or limit local governments’ ability to contract out for the provision of services.

4. Support legislation that will preserve or enhance the tools, incentives, and programs utilized by local governments and the state that will promote filming in California.

5. Call for the reinstatement of the flexible work week that allows individual employees to request deviation from the 8-hour, five-day state mandate.

6. Support increased career technical, vocational, computer science and STEAM funding in schools.

7. Advocate for the protection of independent contractors and the gig economy, allowing Californians to work independently for many reasons: flexibility, quality of life, more control over their work, more economic security, or extra money on the side. 