2024 Law Updates
 California-Specific

Note: This list is not all-encompassing and should not be taken as legal advice.

Minimum Wage and Exempt Employees Salary Threshold: Effective January 1, 2024, the California minimum wage will increase to $16/hour. Higher rates may be in effect in cities or counties that have enacted their own minimum wage, and employers need to comply with the highest applicable minimum wage. To qualify as exempt, employees must make at least $66,560 per year ($5,546.67 per month).

SB 616: Expanded Paid Sick Leave Law: Effective January 1, 2024, expands California’s existing paid sick leave law in several ways, including requiring employers to provide and allow employees to use at least 40 hours or five days of paid sick leave per year and will preempt local ordinances in certain respects.

SB 848: Leave for Reproductive Loss: Effective January 1, 2024, will require California employers to grant eligible employees up to five days of protected leave, following a qualifying reproductive loss event. The new law defines the term “reproductive loss event” to mean a failed adoption, failed surrogacy, miscarriage, stillbirth, or unsuccessful assisted reproduction. 

SB 553 Workplace Violence Prevention Law: Starting July 1, 2024, will require employers to adopt a comprehensive workplace violence prevention plan, either as part of their injury and illness prevention programs or as a separate document. SB 553 imposes specific requirements on employers, including: 1) recording incidents or threats in a violent incident log; 2) providing training to all employees; and 3) maintaining records related to a workplace violence prevention plan. 

SB 700/AB 2188: Cannabis Anti-Discrimination: Effective January 1, 2024, it prohibits most employers from discriminating or retaliating against applicants and employees for off-the-job cannabis use. SB 700 expands on AB 2188 by prohibiting employers from requesting information from an applicant about the applicant’s prior cannabis use or using related information obtained through a background check unless otherwise permitted by federal or state law. 

City of Berkeley’s Fair Workweek Ordinance: Effective January 12, 2024, applies to any employer in the City of Berkeley with 10 or more employees. The ordinance includes several obligations for covered employers pertaining to scheduling and giving notice of schedule changes.

AB 1076/SB 699: Prohibition Against Noncompete Agreements: Effective January 1, 2024, it prohibits employers from entering into or attempting to enforce noncompete agreements with employees. The new law establishes that noncompete agreements are void in California regardless of where the employee worked when the employee entered into the agreement and/or where the employee signed the agreement. Additionally, it requires employers to notify current and former employees (employed after January 1, 2022) in writing by February 14, 2024, that any noncompete agreements they have signed are void.

AB 636: Wage Theft Notice: Effective Date: January 1, 2024 (for emergency or disaster declaration requirements); March 15, 2024 (for federal H-2A agricultural visa employees), it extends the requirement to give new hires a notice encompassing employment, wages, and sick leave details. It extends this requirement to include information about relevant federal or state emergency declarations, particularly affecting health and safety.

SB 497: Equal Pay and Anti-Retaliation: Effective January 1, 2024, establishes a rebuttable presumption of retaliation if an employer takes an adverse action against an employee within 90 days of the employee engaging in certain protected activities, such as complaining about an equal pay violation or an employment practice that the employee reasonably believes is unlawful. 

SB 428: Harassment Restraining Orders: January 1,  2025, SB 428 authorizes employers to seek a restraining order on behalf of an employee suffering from “harassment,” which is defined as “a knowing and willful course of conduct directed at a specific person that seriously alarms, annoys, or harasses the person, and that serves no legitimate purpose.”

AB 594: State Prosecution for Labor Code Violations: Effective January 1, 2024, it empowers city, district, and county attorneys to prosecute civil and criminal violations of the California Labor Code through January 1, 2029. The bill also provides that any individual agreement requiring a worker to arbitrate disputes with their employer, or that otherwise restricts representative actions, shall have no effect on the prosecutor’s authority to enforce the Labor Code. 

SB 365: Arbitration: Effective January 1, 2024, SB 365 breaks from the general rule, stating that trial court proceedings won't automatically stay during an appeal of an order dismissing or denying a motion to compel arbitration.

INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC NEW LAWS 

AB 1228: Fast Food Act Update: Effective April 1, 2024, it includes the creation of the Fast Food Council, a minimum wage increase to $20 per hour, and changes to employment standards in the fast-food restaurant industry

SB 476: Food Handler Card Cost: Effective January 1st, 2024, establishes that employers must now cover the cost of employees’ food handler cards and the relevant training time and courses. 

SB 525: $25/Hour Minimum Wage for Covered Health Care Workers: Effective June 1, 2024, it establishes a statewide $25 minimum wage (incremental and depends on the nature of the employer) for covered health care employees, including physicians, nurses, and even some janitors and laundry workers. 

SB 723: COVID-19 Rehiring and Retention for Covered Displaced Hospitality and Business Services Employees: Effective January 1, 2024, it requires covered employers in the hospitality and business services industry to make written job offers for positions that become available to qualified employees who (1) worked for the employer for six months or more in the 12 months preceding January 2, 2020 and (2) were laid off “due to a reason related to the COVID-19 pandemic.” Such employers are also prohibited from retaliating or taking adverse action against a laid-off employee for seeking to enforce their rights under these provisions. 

AB 647: Expanded Protections for Grocery Workers: Effective January 1, 2024, it amends existing Labor Code sections and adds new ones that expand protections afforded to grocery workers in eight key ways.

Sources:   

• https://www.klgates.com/The-EssentialsCalifornia-Employment-Law-Update-For-2024-11-6-2023 
• https://www.californiaemploymentlawreport.com/2023/11/action-items-for-california-employers-to-prepare-for-2024/ 
• https://ogletree.com/insights-resources/blog-posts/californias-new-employment-laws-for-2024-a-roundup-of-new-laws/