California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed several significant employment-related bills after the state legislature’s 2026 session. Most of them take will effect January 1, 2027.
These new laws:
- Expand required sexual harassment training to include anti-hate speech training,
- Expand WARN notice requirements related to layoffs resulting from the use of artificial intelligence,
- Restrict the use of automated decision systems in adverse employment decisions and to infer an employee’s protected characteristic,
- Expand bereavement leave to cover the death of an employee’s designated person,
- Expand protections against immigration-related retaliation,
- Increase penalties related to California’s Pay Data Report,
- Establish a uniform definition for sex discrimination across California laws,
- Delay the effective date of California’s “stay or pay” law, and
- Establish new restrictions on workplace surveillance.
Click here to read more from the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC), our affiliated nonprofit membership association.
Members can review CWC’s summary of the California legislation and consult its State Standards Resources to keep up with state and local workplace developments.