As a result of State legislative actions, California employers must implement several new and updated employment laws that take effect on January 1, 2026, unless otherwise noted. Below are the highlights of laws that have the most significant impact on employers.
On January 1, 2026, California’s minimum wage will increase to $16.90 per hour. This hourly increase also affects the minimum salary requirements for full-time exempt employees, which will increase to $70,304 per year.
The minimum wage rates for some cities and counties will increase on January 1, 2026. These local minimum wage rates do not affect the statewide minimum exempt salary threshold.
Lastly, some fast food restaurants and healthcare facilities have their own minimum wage requirements for both hourly and exempt employees.
SB 642 makes changes to California’s pay scale disclosure requirements and the California Equal Pay Act. Under existing law, employers are required to provide pay scale information to applicants and employees upon request. Employers with 15 or more employees are also required to post this information in job postings.
SB 642 revises the definition of “pay scale” for these purposes to mean a “good faith estimate” of the salary or hourly wage range the employer reasonably expects to pay upon hire.
The law also makes significant changes to California’s Equal Pay Act, including extending the statute of limitations for pay discrimination claims to three years and allowing potential recovery of lost wages up to six years.
According to SB 513, employers who maintain education or training records must ensure those records are part of an employee's personnel file and include all of the following: the name of the employee and training provider, duration and date of the training, core competencies of the training, including skills in equipment or software, and resulting certification or qualification.
AB 692 bans many “stay-or-pay” contracts, including training repayment agreements. However, the ban will not apply to certain common arrangements, such as tuition reimbursement and retention bonus repayment, as long as employers stay within the new statutory guardrails.
The Workplace Know Your Rights Act, SB 294, requires employers to distribute a new notice to their employees that explains certain workers’ protections against unfair immigration-related practices and their constitutional rights when interacting with law enforcement in the workplace.
The first notice must be provided to current employees and new hires on or before February 1, 2026, and then annually thereafter. (The Department of Labor Standards Enforcement is expected to post a template notice by January 1.)
Separate from the new notice requirement, employers must, if requested by the employee, notify their designated emergency contact in the event the employee is arrested or detained at work. Employers allow employees to designate this emergency contact no later than March 30, 2026, or at the time of hire thereafter.
Layoffs, facility closures, and employee relocations can potentially trigger an employer’s duty to give employees advance notice of a layoff or certain other workplace events, and a new law expands what’s required to be included in those notices.
California’s new, strict, and challenging 30-day timeframe puts pressure on organizations to act quickly – sometimes before they can complete an investigation and gather all the facts.
For more information on the 2026 new workplace laws, click here for more information and links to helpful resources.