Quick Hits
- The California State Legislature concluded the second year of its 2025–2026 session on September 1, 2026, and sent its remaining approved bills to Governor Gavin Newsom, including measures addressing automated decision systems, workplace surveillance, pay equity enforcement, bereavement leave, and immigration-related retaliation.
- Governor Newsom must sign or veto bills passed during the legislative session by September 30, 2026, or they will automatically become law.
California Employment Bills Sent to the Governor for Signature
| Bill | Summary | Current Status |
| AB 1803 | Anti-hate speech training. This bill would, beginning January 1, 2028, require that the sexual harassment training and education already mandated for employers with five or more employees also include a component on anti-hate speech, consisting of practical guidance on recognizing, reporting, and confronting workplace speech that vilifies, humiliates, or incites hatred against people based on characteristics protected under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). | Enrolled and presented to the governor for signature. |
| AB 1940 | Menopause as a protected category. This bill would add perimenopause, menopause, postmenopause, and related medical conditions to FEHA’s definition of “sex,” making discrimination, harassment, or failure to accommodate those conditions unlawful. The bill would also require the Civil Rights Department, by July 1, 2027, to update its mandatory workplace poster to reflect these protections. | Enrolled and presented to the governor for signature. |
| AB 2563 | Sex discrimination definition harmonization. This bill would establish a uniform definition of “sex discrimination” across dozens of California codes, providing that any state-law provision prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex, gender, or similar discrimination must be interpreted to prohibit discrimination based on sex or gender stereotype nonconformity, among other characteristics. As applied to employment, the bill would amend Government Code section 12926, the Fair Employment and Housing Act’s (FEHA) definitions section, to further define “sex” to include those same characteristics. The bill states it is declarative of existing law, but would also add menopause-related conditions to FEHA’s definition of “sex” in Government Code section 12926 if AB 1940 is enacted and takes effect on or before January 1, 2027. | Enrolled and presented to the governor for signature. |
| SB 1149 | Bereavement leave for a “designated person.” This bill would expand the list of people for whom an employee may take up to five days of bereavement leave to include a “designated person” chosen by the employee at the time the leave is taken, extending the current bereavement leave law to chosen or extended family. The bill would authorize an employer to limit an employee to one designated person per 12-month period. | Enrolled and presented to the governor for signature. |
| AB 1883 | Workplace surveillance tools. With certain exceptions, this bill would prohibit employers, including governmental entities, universities, and labor contractors, from using a workplace surveillance tool that uses artificial intelligence to collect neural data (such as gait analysis) or recognize an individual’s emotional state. The bill would authorize enforcement by the labor commissioner or a public prosecutor and would create a private right of action. | Enrolled and presented to the governor for signature. |
| AB 1331 | Workplace surveillance in private areas. This bill would prohibit an employer from using a workplace surveillance tool to monitor or surveil employees in workplace bathrooms, with limited exceptions, and would allow employees to leave surveillance devices behind when entering those areas. It shares an enforcement structure with AB 1883, including civil penalties of up to $500 per violation. | Enrolled and presented to the governor for signature. |
| SB 947 | “No Robo Bosses Act.” Beginning July 1, 2027, this bill would prohibit employers from relying solely on an automated decision system (ADS) for discipline or termination decisions, requiring a human reviewer to independently corroborate the ADS output. The bill would also bar using an ADS to infer a worker’s protected characteristics or to predict and retaliate against a worker for exercising legal rights, and would require post-use notice to affected employees. | Enrolled and presented to the governor for signature. |
| SB 951 | Cal/WARN: AI technological displacement notice. This bill would revise the California WARN Act to require a notice, headed “This notice is for a technology displacement,” when a mass layoff, relocation, or termination is caused in whole or substantial part by artificial intelligence or other automating technology. The notice would have to identify the affected positions, the job functions being automated, and the type of AI or automation involved, and retain the existing 60-day advance notice period. | Enrolled and presented to the governor for signature. |
| SB 1237 | Pay data reporting penalties and transparency. This bill would require the Civil Rights Department to annually publish a report of aggregate budgetary and enforcement information for the Civil Rights Enforcement and Litigation Fund, including the total civil penalties assessed, collected, and outstanding, and how penalty revenue is allocated or used. | Enrolled and presented to the governor for signature. |
| AB 2227 | Farm labor contractor bonds and licensing. This bill would tie farm labor contractors’ required surety bonds to gross receipts rather than payroll, roughly doubling the bond amounts for many contractors (up to $150,000 for those with the largest gross receipts). The bill would also require the labor commissioner to issue a default order, decision, or award if a grower or farm labor contractor fails to timely appear or answer a wage complaint. | Enrolled and presented to the governor for signature. |
| AB 2646 | Agricultural minimum wage. This bill would set a minimum hourly wage of $19.75 for an “approved agricultural employee” (largely non-California residents authorized to work in the state on a temporary or seasonal basis, such as H-2A workers) and for a “corresponding employee” performing the same or similar work for the same employer in the same county. Beginning January 1, 2027, the wage would be adjusted annually by the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment. | Enrolled and presented to the governor for signature. |
| AB 2495 | Unlawful immigration-related retaliation. This bill would expand existing law prohibiting unfair immigration-related practices used to retaliate against workers for exercising labor and employment rights, making it unlawful to engage in conduct tied to a person’s actual or perceived immigration status that would reasonably tend to dissuade the exercise of, or induce abstention from, a legal right. Violators would face a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per person per violation, payable to the person harmed. | Enrolled and presented to the governor for signature. |
| AB 1697 | “Stay or pay” effective-date fix. This bill would amend 2025’s Anti-Trap law (AB 692) to make its restrictions on stay-or-pay contracts effective for contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2027, rather than January 1, 2026. The bill carries an urgency clause and would take effect immediately upon signing; it would also add new exceptions for certain grant-funded recruitment and retention programs, advanced paid time off, and securities/insurance producer agreements. | Enrolled and presented to the governor for signature. |
“Enrolled” refers to when the final version of a bill has been approved by both the Senate and the Assembly, proofread for accuracy, and certified by the legislative officers before being sent to the governor for approval or veto.
Ogletree Deakins’ California offices will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the California blog as additional information becomes available.
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