Reducing PAGA Liability Under Recent PAGA Reforms

The California Legislature passed reforms to California’s onerous Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”) in 2024, which is good news for California employers. The PAGA reforms revamped the law’s penalty structure and provide employers with an opportunity to remediate possible violations to reduce potential liability for penalties. Previously, PAGA penalties were set at $100 for each …

Expanded Parental Leave Protections for 2018

A new California law will expand parental leave protections under the California Family Rights Act to individuals working for employers who have at least 20 employees.  Existing law only applies to employers with at least 50 employees. Senate Bill 63 will take effect on January 1, 2018. Under the new law, employers with 20 or more …

Don’t Ask About Salary History!

Governor Jerry Brown recently signed into law a new provision of the California Labor Code that will restrict employers from asking about and relying upon salary history information from job applicants. The new law will go into effect on January 1, 2018. The law will prohibit employers from relying on salary history information of a job …

California Supreme Court Clarifies Day Of Rest Rules

California law requires employers to guarantee a day of rest for each workweek for its employees. Specifically, the California Labor Code prohibits an employer for “causing” its employees to work “more than six days in seven,” but this rule does not apply “when the total hours of employment do not exceed 30 hours in any …

New Limitations On Use Of Criminal Background Information In California

The California Fair Employment and Housing Council has issued new regulations which further limit employers’ ability to consider criminal history when making employment decisions, such as hiring, promotion, training, discipline, layoff, or termination. The new regulations will take effect on July 1, 2017. The regulations prohibit an employer from considering criminal history in employment decisions if doing …

Ninth Circuit Court Rules That Employers Can Pay Women Less Than Men Based On Salary History

The federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that unequal pay between men and women is lawful when the difference in pay is based on salary history and not gender. The plaintiff in Rizo v. Yovino was a female consultant working for the County of Fresno who discovered that men working the same job as …

Changes to California’s Data Breach Notification Law

Many companies that possess computer data containing personal information relating to individuals take the precaution of encrypting that data so that is more difficult to be compromised. “Encryption” is a process that converts the data into a form that is unreadable without an encryption “key,” which renders the data readable. Up until January 1, 2017, …