As a California-based HR & Payroll firm, TPHR is hyper-focused on California’s minimum wages. California keeps us on our toes with over 40 local minimum wages to track. However, many other states are following suit, so it’s important to stay informed about changes happening across the country.
Below you fill find a list of the California Minimum Wages. For a comprehensive list of each state’s minimum wage, visit this interactive map on the DOL’s website.
‘Tis the season for employment law changes in California! We hope you are enjoying the start of the holiday season, which for us at Total Package HR means we are digging deep into what’s coming next in the new year.
Each week we will highlight a new law coming in 2024. We’ll start with the ones that will require the most action and end with the good-to-knows.
If you need assistance with executing any of these new requirements or are unsure if it is applicable to your business, we are here to help!
California has always been a high maintenance state, so let’s chat about the new challenges brought on by this law taking effect in 2024. Off-the-job cannabis use will become a protected category from discrimination for almost all employers. Discrimination means making a decision about hiring, firing, promotion, pay, discipline, and so on based on a protected characteristic/class. To be blunt, if you see an employee over the weekend post on Instagram their 420 escapades, you can’t take any action against them Monday morning.
Covered employers will not be able to use drug screen results that test for “nonpsychoactive cannabis metabolites” – this is the part of marijuana that shows when you are not actively high but have used cannabis products recently. However, these drug tests don’t exist yet, and will likely not be ready by the time this law goes into effect. Meaning covered employers should consider removing Marijuana from any drug testing as adverse action based on the presence of such is prohibited come January. Employers can still test (pre-employment, reasonable suspicion, post-injury, and random) staff members, but the test has to specifically be to determine if the employee is currently high or impaired.
Employers who are in the building and construction trades, require federal background checks or security clearance, or federal contractors who are required to drug screen for marijuana are exempt from this portion of the new law.
Additionally, employers will be prohibited from inquiring about previous cannabis use from applicants or employees. Employers who run background checks cannot use any information regarding previous cannabis use from the background check to discriminate against an employee or applicant (take any adverse action such as rescinding offer, termination, refusal to give promotion or salary increase, etc.). This portion of the law applies even if you are listed as an exception to the drug screen regulations.
This new law does not allow employees to use marijuana while at work, or to show up to work under the influence. It also does not require employers to allow on-site marijuana use. It strictly applies to off duty use. Employers still hold the right to maintain a drug-free workplace and take adverse action on the use, sale, purchase or consumption of cannabis while at work or on Company property.
Over the last couple of years, we have noticed more employers are opting to remove THC drug testing all together. This new law (and lack of appropriate testing to comply with it) has solidified this decision and influenced even more employers to remove THC from their panel of drugs to test for.
If you have questions or would like to discuss how this new law will affect your current processes, reach out to your friends at Total Package HR!
‘Tis the season for employment law changes in California! We hope you are enjoying the start of the holiday season, which for us at Total Package HR means we are digging deep into what’s coming next in the new year.
Join us for Get Ready for 2024 (Employment Law Update Edition)! Each week we will highlight a new law coming in 2024. We’ll start with the ones that will require the most action and end with the good-to-knows.
If you need assistance with executing any of these new requirements or are unsure if it is applicable to your business, we are here to help!
We have another year that California is adding another job protected leave! Beginning January 1, 2024, employers with 5 or more total employees in the country will need to offer their employees a minimum of 5 days of unpaid time off in the event of a “reproductive loss” event. A reproductive loss event is defined as any of the following:
While employers have the option to pay employees for reproductive loss leave, this new requirement is focused on job protection, and does not mandate pay. Job protection means protecting against any adverse action, such as discipline or retaliation, for taking time off under this leave. This new law also protects employee’s confidentiality regarding any matter associated with this leave.
Be sure to update your handbooks to include this new leave and align your bereavement leave policy with reproductive loss leave to ensure there is no cross-over. We’ve often seen employers cover miscarriages under bereavement leave policies, which may potentially conflict the amount of time an employee may take off for such an event. It may also complicate payment of leave if a reproductive loss event is covered under an existing policy. If you need assistance updating the policy to be compliant, we are here to help!
This alert is for employers with California employees who currently conduct background checks, or are considering conducting them in the future. As of October 1st California has enacted new regulations regarding background checks in employment. While already highly regulated, California’s new regs provide some additional guidelines.
While this may seem like a long list of regulations, much of this is not really all that new. We feel much of this is actually good guidance to help employers navigate this sensitive and tricky process. If you need help updating policy or practice, or helping you/your team to better understand the rules and regulations surrounding conducting background checks, reach out to your friends at TPHR!
On December 29, 2022, the President signed into law two important and monumental bills – the Pregnancy Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) and the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (PUMP). These hit close to home as our Compliance Manager, who keeps us all up to date on changing regulations, is expecting (feel free to send a congratulatory message 😉). Even if you are in California, or in one of the 30 states that already provide pregnancy protections, you will want to learn more about these new regulations.
The Providing Urgent Maternal Protections (PUMP) Act expands employee protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and applies to those who must comply with the FLSA, regardless of business size. It took effect Dec. 29, 2022, but compliance will take effect starting April 28, 2023. This law expands the right of nursing mothers to take breaks and have a private place to express milk during the workday. Very similar to California, employers must provide all nursing employees with a reasonable break each time they need to express milk. There is no maximum number of breaks, so employees are entitled to take as many as are necessary.
Under existing law, lactation breaks for non-exempt employees may be unpaid, except when:
1) the nursing employee is not completely relieved from duty;
2) the employer pays other employees for similar breaks; or
3) when breast milk is expressed during paid breaks (e.g., paid 10-minute rest breaks in California). State or local laws may require employers to pay non-exempt employees for lactation break time – so be sure to check with TPPS if you are in a state this may apply to!
So, to summarize, when an employee is using break time at work to express breast milk they either:
Further, when employers provide paid breaks, an employee who uses such break time to pump must be compensated in the same way that other employees are compensated for break times.
Employees who work remotely are also eligible to take pump breaks under the FLSA on the same basis as other employees who work in-office.
Although exempt employees are generally not covered under the entire FLSA, the Federal Department of Labor (DOL) has specifically stated that exempt employees are also protected under the PUMP Act. Exempt employees also have the right to express breast milk in a private place during the first year of their baby’s life.
Exempt employees must be paid their full weekly salary, regardless of whether they take breaks to express breast milk.
The private place to express breast milk must be shielded from view, not be a bathroom and be free from intrusion from co-workers and the public. Again, if you are in one of the many states with these existing laws, you are already familiar with this! If the space is shielded from view and free from intrusion, you can have a multi-purpose area that is temporarily converted into a space for expressing breast milk and is made available when needed by a nursing parent. Other measures such as privacy screens, curtains, and signage may be used.
The PUMP Act requires employees to notify their employer if they haveconcerns that the company is not complying with the law. Employees then must give the company 10 days to rectify problems before filing a claim or lawsuit.
The provisions of the PUMP Act are not as strict as California, New York, orOregon, to name a few, and the most beneficial law should be applied (in this case, state law). Some examples include:
The Pregnancy Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) protects employees and applicants of “covered employers” who have known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. The PWFA applies only to accommodations, as those protections did not previously exist at the federal level (pregnancy is generally not a covered disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act). Existing laws that the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) enforces also make it illegal to fire or discriminate against employees based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. This new law will take effect June 27, 2023.
”Covered employers” include private and public sector employers with at least 15 employees, Congress, Federal agencies, employment agencies, and labor organizations. So, yes, even the White House must follow this new law!
The relationship between the PWFA and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) can get a little tricky. To simplify it, the ADA covers people with disabilities, while the PWFA protects individuals with known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. Pregnancy is not a covered disability under the ADA, however, there may have been times when medical conditions brought on by pregnancy or exacerbated by pregnancy may have been covered under the ADA. Now, given the PWFA’s lower standard of a “known limitation” as compared to the ADA’s definition of a disability, if an employee is considered disabled under the ADA due to a pregnancy-related condition, they would almost certainly be covered under the PWFA. But not all employees covered by the PWFA will be covered by the ADA. Ya follow?
The PWFA’s accommodation standards are based on the ADA’s. However, under the PWFA, an employer may temporarily have to eliminate an essential job function – which is not the case under the ADA.
Some of these may differ from other disability reasonable accommodations you see under the ADA – keep that in mind!
Additional protections employees are entitled to under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act include protections from discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions; and requiring an employer to treat an employee affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical condition in the same way it would treat other similar employees in their ability or inability to work.
While these new regulations will go a long way to protect the rights and provide accommodations for pregnant and nursing parents throughout the United States, employers are encouraged to act now to assure compliance and protect themselves from disputes and possible lawsuits. As with all things HR, do not hesitate to contact TPPS if you have questions or would like help setting up PWFA and PUMP compliance policies for your organization.
Employers are not off the hook just yet with COVID. On February 3, 2023, the Office of Administrative Law approved Cal/OSHA’s proposed non-emergency standards and they went into effect immediately, leaving the Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS) in the dust. Some notable changes to the previous ETS are:
HR Professionals and attorneys alike have had our fair share of struggles in understanding how we are to handle COVID cases moving forward under the non-emergency regulations (NER). We are providing a high-level overview of definitions and processes, however, if you require more in-depth information or would like assistance in handling positive cases, just ask us!
A confirmed positive case, whether contracted at work or at home, that is confirmed through an at-home test, a PCR lab test, or doctor diagnosis.
Infectious Period:
When symptoms are present
When symptoms are not present
This can be the same or different than a “close contact” as defined below. Employees in an exposed group are considered “potential exposures”.
Everyone at the worksite, working area, or in a common area at work where a person who tested positive was present at any time during their infectious period.
Does not apply to the following scenarios:
An exposed group can be broader than a close contact.
An individual who was in close contact with a COVID confirmed case during their infectious period. The amount of time spent with the COVID confirmed individual to be considered a “close contact” will depend on the size of the space they are in.
If the indoor space is larger than 400,000 cubic feet per floor and the contact with the COVID confirmed individual was within 6 feet for 15 minutes total in a 24-hour period during the COVID confirmed individual’s infectious period, then it is a close contact.
How can you determine the size/volume of the indoor space?
If the indoor space is less than 400,000 cubic feet and they were sharing the same air space during the infectious period, then it is a close contact. However, spaces that are separated by floor to ceiling walls or doors that remain closed are considered its own indoor space.
If the individual with the confirmed COVID case was wearing a respirator, such as an N95, or if the close contact employee was wearing a respirator during the period of close contact as defined above, then that is not a close contact.
Now that we (sort of) have an understanding of the infectious period, exposed group, and close contacts, here is how those definitions will play into how you are determining who needs to be excluded from the workplace.
Cal/OSHA has now aligned their requirements with the CDPH guidance on workplace exclusions. The following must be excluded from work during their infectious period:
The following do not need to be excluded from the workplace, however, DO need to wear a face mask for at least 10 days.
Exposed groups do not need to be excluded from the workplace unless they were also identified as a close contact and symptoms are present, as stated above.
So, you’ve identified who needs to stay home and who doesn’t… now what?
A notice needs to go out to both the exposed group and the close contacts. AB 2693 gave us the option to post the information we would normally send via an email blast. To be compliant, the notice must be posted where anyone in the exposed group and close contacts can easily see the posting. This is usually where you have your employment posters (I know we all have them 😉).
Whether sent out individually or posted, the following information must be included:
Notices must stay posted for 15 days and be posted within one business day of the employer being notified of a positive case in the workplace. Posting on an existing employee portal is acceptable (such as Paylocity or an Intranet).
Notices must be posted in English and in any language understood by the majority of employees. A log must be kept of all the dates the notice was posted at the worksite. A good way to keep track of this would be to take a timestamped picture of the poster at the beginning and end of the posting period. We’ll talk more about record keeping requirements in the next section.
These resources must be provided to every employee who:
The information to be provided to them is:
After all is said and done, I can throw all my documentation away, right? Wrong! The NER has stated what the record-keeping requirements will be for the next 3 years.
Employers are required to keep a record of and track all COVID-19 cases we are made aware of with the employee’s:
Employers must also keep the notices sent or posted to inform employees of a positive COVID case in the workplace, including the dates which they remained posted. As stated above, the most convenient way will be to keep a timestamped photo of the poster to include the start date and end date of the posting period. You’ll also want to keep a copy of the posting. If you chose to email the notices, you will need to save a copy of the email that was sent to the employee(s).
We get it – it’s a lot! When the very first ETS came out in 2020, it took time to understand and embrace it… and the same thing will happen with the NER! If this information has prompted questions or you need guidance on handling a COVID positive case, please reach out to us!
Let’s close out the year with a lightning round of some final items to come in 2023 throughout California.
The Contraceptive Equity Act of 2022 brought us a new protected category under the FEHA: reproductive health decision-making. Some examples of protected actions are an individual’s decision to use or access a certain contraceptive drug or device, exercising their rights to medical services for reproductive health, or disclosing information relating to reproductive health decisions. Employers cannot discriminate against any employee or applicant, or make it a condition of employment, to disclose such information.
This Act will also require most health benefit plans to provide coverage for contraceptives or other related medical services, such as vasectomies, in accordance with California’s Health and Safety Code and Insurance Code beginning January 1, 2024.
This new law prohibits any form of retaliation, adverse employment action, or threatening adverse action against an employee who refuses to report work (or leaves early) when they have a reasonable belief that an emergency condition is causing their workplace to be unsafe. An “emergency condition” can include threats to the workplace, natural disasters that affected the workplace, criminal acts that may cause an employee to feel unsafe, evacuation orders to an employee’s home, or the school/childcare of the employee’s child. Luckily, this new law strictly excludes health pandemics – so COVID would not fall under this protection. This law also excludes workers whose main role is to render aid or services in emergency conditions, such as paramedics and firefighters, those who work at a health care/residential care facility and provide direct patient care, and employees working on a military base.
Lastly, employers may not prevent an employee from accessing or using their cell phones to seek emergency assistance, assess the safety of the situation, or communicate with a person to verify their safety during an emergency condition.
The subjective piece is the “reasonable belief the workplace is unsafe.” The law defines this as a circumstance that would cause a reasonable person to feel they are in real danger of death or serious injury if they remain at work. This can vary from person to person, so we recommend reaching out to TPPS if you have concerns.
California’s state of emergency is set to end on February 28, 2023. As such, Cal/OSHA has decided to remove the COVID Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS) and instead will require non-emergency COVID regulations to be added to the Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP). All employers with one or more employees are required to have an IIPP and will need to update theirs accordingly.
Although Cal/OSHA has finalized their portion, the Office of Administrative Law still needs to sign off. We estimate this will happen about mid-January 2023. TPPS will send updates in January!
Navigating California’s everchanging laws can be complicated – some of these updates may require action on your part. TPPS is here to support you, and your managers, to better understand these changes and what they mean for your individual business or industry. If you need help with these action items, please reach out!
Join us for the Get Ready for 2023 (Employment Law Update Edition)! Each week we will highlight a new law coming in 2023. We’ll start with the ones that will require the most action and end with the good-to-knows. If you need assistance with executing any of these new requirements or are unsure if it is applicable to your business, we are here to help! Just Ask Us!
Protection of privacy rights has made a lot of changes on the consumer side of businesses. I’m sure we have all noticed the privacy disclosures pop up when we are just trying to buy the newest pair of Nike’s… However, it is now time for it to make its changes to the employer side of things. Specifically, with Human Resources data.
Employers who have at least one employee in California (even if your business is not located in California). The law would only apply to employees in the state, AND at least one of the following applies:
If this won’t apply to you, feel free to close this email! If it does apply, hang tight…
This is a pretty heavy lift with a lot of little caveats… if the CPRA applies to you, we recommend counsel assist you with the disclosures that are required. We provide a high-level overview of the information available, but as you all know (and as a reminder), we do not provide legal advice.
As of January 1, 2023, certain employers may need to add disclosures to their application and onboarding processes. Enforcement is set to begin on July 1, 2023.
The CPRA also requires that certain notices be given at the time the data is collected (“time of collection”) and an online privacy policy. The time of collection notice must be provided at or before the time personal information is being collected from employees, applicants, contractors, etc. explaining what information is being collected, how it is being used, and how long it is being stored.
The online privacy policy should be made available to all employees and contain a retrospective view of how the company has handled personal data in the last 12 months. The notice should include the appropriate protections it is implementing to protect personal information, security procedures, sources from which they are collecting the data, business or commercial purposes for the data, the categories of third parties that the company discloses this data to (such as a benefits broker), and how employees may exercise their rights under the CPRA.
This is a lot of information and generally out of the HR realm, aside from the distribution of the disclosures. We recommend if this applies to you, you review with counsel to ensure your notices comply with the specific CPRA requirements.
