In advance of our traditional list of relevant employment law updates issued every January, we would like to bring your attention to some changes that will require edits to your hiring practices and edits to your handbooks.

I. Pay Scale and Data Reporting

Effective January 1, 2023:

1. All employers must provide pay scales to any employee or applicant asking for one.
2. All employers must keep pay history for every employee for the duration of their employment, and three years after the employment ends.
3. Employers with 15+ employees must post a pay scale along with any new job advertisement.
4. Employers with 100+ employees must submit detailed pay data reports to the state Civil Rights Department (formerly the Department of Fair Employment and Housing) in addition to the pay data reports to the federal EEOC.  Last year, employers were permitted to submit a copy of their EEO-1 report to the CRD, but now the CRD has created its own list of required information.  These reports are due by the second Wednesday of May each year (May 10, 2023).

II. CFRA Leave and Sick Leave to Care for “Designated Persons”

Employers with 5+ employees should have already updated your handbooks to include reference to the California Family Rights Act, the California equivalent to the FMLA, providing up to 12 weeks of job-protected time off to qualified employees.  The new law allows employees to take time off for this leave, as well as their state-mandated sick leave, to care for a “designated person” in addition to a “close family member.” 

Employers should allow new hires to designate a person as part of their onboarding documents. Employees may also designate the person at the time of requesting leave.  For CFRA leave, the designated person should be someone related by blood or whose association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.  For regular sick leave, the designated person can be any person the employee chooses, whether having a close family relationship or not.  Employers can limit changing the designated person to once per 12-month period.

III. Mandatory Bereavement Leave

Employees with at least 30 days active service are now permitted to request up to five days of bereavement leave for the death of a family member, defined as spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, domestic partner, or parent-in-law.  The days off need not be consecutive but must be taken within three months of the death. If you have a bereavement leave policy offering paid days off already, you must pay for the same number of days as you have previously offered.  If you pay less than five days, then the remainder of the five days will be unpaid.

• If you already HAVE a bereavement leave policy, the new law requires you to ensure the policy allows up to five days off, and to take the time off for persons identified above and during the timeframe described above but does not mandate you to pay for any more days than you already offer.
• If you DO NOT HAVE a bereavement leave policy, the law mandates you to adopt one, that is at least five days (and follows the other requirements above) and you can choose whether you will pay for any of the days off, or not.

Look out for the full employment law update in early January 2023. For any questions, as always, call our office to speak with any of our Employment Law experts: Samantha Pungprakearti, Arif Virji, and Justin Hein at (707) 526-4200.