Quick Hits
- Governor Newsom signed the substantial majority of employment-related bills passed in the 2025-2026 California legislative session, touching on artificial intelligence and workplace surveillance, pay equity enforcement, leave expansions, agricultural labor standards, workplace violence prevention, and immigration-related retaliation.
- The governor vetoed AB 1940, which would have added menopause and related conditions to the Fair Employment and Housing Act’s (FEHA) definition of sex.
- Most of the new laws take effect January 1, 2027, though several carry different operative dates.
California Employment Bills Signed Into Law
| Bill | Summary | Status |
| AB 1331 Workplace Surveillance in Private Areas | Prohibits employers from using surveillance tools in workplace bathrooms or requiring employees to wear tracking devices while in those areas, with limited exceptions for safety cameras and court orders. Civil penalties of up to $500 per violation. | Signed 9/30/26 Effective 1/1/27 |
| AB 1697 “Stay or Pay” Effective Date Fix | Pushes back the 2025 Anti-Trap Act’s restrictions on stay or pay repayment clauses so they apply to contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2027, rather than January 1, 2026. Expands the new hire bonus exception to include post-hire bonuses, and adds new exceptions for grant funded programs, securities or insurance producer agreements, and advanced paid time off benefits. Carries an urgency clause. | Signed 9/30/26 Effective immediately |
| AB 1803 Anti-Hate Speech Training | Adds an anti-hate speech component to California’s mandatory harassment prevention training beginning in 2028, requiring practical guidance on recognizing, reporting, and confronting workplace speech that vilifies or incites hatred based on a characteristic protected under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). The bill does not define hate speech. | Signed 9/27/26 Effective 1/1/28 |
| AB 1838 Public Works: Disclosure of Wage and Hour Violations | Requires a contractor, as a condition of submitting a bid to a local agency for a public works contract, to fully disclose any history of wage and hour violations from the prior five years and provide supporting documentation. A contractor that fails to provide the required disclosures may be disqualified from the bid, and local agencies must establish a disqualification appeal process. Exempts contracts covered by a project labor agreement and projects with a separate prequalification requirement. | Signed 9/27/26 Effective 1/1/27 |
| AB 1883 Workplace Surveillance Tools (Neural Data and Emotional State) | Bars employers from using AI-driven surveillance tools that incorporate facial, gait, or emotion recognition, or that collect neural data, and from using surveillance to infer protected characteristics. Enforced by the labor commissioner, with a private right of action. | Signed 9/30/26 Effective 1/1/27 |
| AB 1940 Menopause as a Protected Category (VETOED) | Would have added perimenopause, menopause, postmenopause, and related conditions to FEHA’s definition of sex and medical condition. | VETOED 9/30/26 |
| AB 1961 Workplace Violence Restraining Orders for Groups of Employees | Lets an employer seek a workplace violence restraining order on behalf of all employees at a location, without naming an individual employee as the protected party, where violence or a credible threat is directed at the workplace generally. | Signed 9/30/26 Effective 1/1/27 |
| AB 2150 Opioid Overdose Reversal Training | Requires any employer that mandates CPR certification training for its employees to also require those employees to complete a separate online video module on naloxone administration, approved by the Emergency Medical Services Authority, to increase opioid overdose reversal rates. | Signed 9/20/26 Effective 1/1/27 (Ch. 384, Stats. 2026) |
| AB 2155 Arbitration Agreements Aligned to FAA Carve-Outs | Makes a California arbitration agreement unenforceable to the same extent it would be unenforceable under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), importing FAA carve-outs such as the interstate transportation worker exemption into state law. | Signed 6/30/26 Effective 1/1/27 |
| AB 2227 Farm Labor Contractor Bonds and Licensing | Doubles required surety bond amounts for farm labor contractor licensure onto a gross receipts-based scale, with bonds of up to $150,000 for larger contractors, and enhances labor commissioner fines of up to $50,000 for farm labor contractor violations. | Signed 9/18/26 (Ch. 294, Stats. 2026) |
| AB 2495 Unlawful Immigration Related Retaliation | Expands the prohibition on unfair immigration-related retaliation. Makes it unlawful to engage in conduct tied to a worker’s actual or perceived immigration status that would reasonably dissuade them from exercising a legal workplace right. Covers applicants and former employees. Civil penalty of up to $10,000 per person per violation, payable to the person harmed. | Signed 9/29/26 (Ch. 748, Stats. 2026) Effective 1/1/27 |
| AB 2563 Sex Discrimination Definition Harmonization | Establishes a uniform definition of sex discrimination across California codes, confirming it includes discrimination based on nonconformity with sex or gender stereotypes. A trigger provision that would have added menopause to the definition did not activate because AB 1940 was vetoed. | Signed 9/30/26 Effective 1/1/27 |
| AB 2646 Agricultural Minimum Wage | Sets a new minimum hourly wage of $19.75 for approved agricultural employees (largely H-2A workers) and corresponding employees performing similar work, adjusting annually by the Social Security cost of living adjustment starting January 1, 2027. | Signed 9/30/26 Effective 1/1/27 |
| SB 947 Automated Decision Systems (“No Robo Bosses Act”) | Prohibits using an automated decision system (ADS) as the sole basis for discipline or termination without independent human corroboration. Primary reliance on an ADS requires human review and a post-use notice, and the bill bars using an ADS to infer protected characteristics or to retaliate. Successor to SB 7, which was vetoed in 2025. | Signed 9/30/26 Effective 1/1/27 (ADS restrictions operative 7/1/27) |
| SB 951 AI and Technological Displacement WARN Notice | Amends the Cal/WARN Act, rather than creating a standalone act as originally proposed. When a covered mass layoff, relocation, or termination is caused substantially by AI or automation, the existing 60-day WARN notice must flag the technology displacement and identify affected job functions and the AI system involved. | Signed 9/30/26 Effective 1/1/27 |
| SB 1149 Bereavement Leave for a Designated Person | Expands existing bereavement leave (up to five days unpaid, job protected) to allow an employee to designate one person per 12-month period as a covered relation, beyond the current immediate family member definition. | Signed 9/27/26 Effective 1/1/27 |
| SB 1237 Pay Data Reporting Penalties | Raises the civil penalty for an employer’s subsequent failure to file a required pay data report with the Civil Rights Department from up to $200 per employee to up to $1,000 per employee. The first failure to file penalty remains up to $100 per employee. | Signed 9/30/26 Effective 1/1/27 |
| SB 1316 Labor Commissioner Liens and Evidence | Lets the labor commissioner renew a wage judgment lien on an employer’s real property for additional 10-year periods, and bars an employer from using payroll or time records in a retaliation or discrimination hearing if those records were not timely produced when requested. | Signed 8/27/26 Effective 1/1/27 |
What This Means for Employers
With most of these laws taking effect January 1, 2027, California employers may want to begin updating handbooks, harassment prevention and other mandatory training materials, surveillance and monitoring policies, Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice procedures, and immigration-related nondiscrimination practices ahead of the new year. Employers using automated decision systems or AI-driven workplace tools in particular may want to review how those tools are deployed and documented, given the overlapping requirements now in place under AB 1883, SB 947, and SB 951, and previously enacted laws and regulations.
Ogletree Deakins’ California offices will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution, Artificial Intelligence and Innovation, California, Cybersecurity and Privacy, Drug Testing, Immigration, Leaves of Absence, Pay Equity, Reductions in Force, Wage and Hour, Workplace Safety and Health, and Workplace Violence Prevention blogs as additional information becomes available.
In addition, the Ogletree Deakins Client Portal provides subscribers with timely updates on California state laws, including California’s updated laws on Bereavement Leave, Automated Employment Decisions, Sexual Harassment Training Requirements, and Workplace Violence Prevention. Premium-level subscribers have access to comprehensive law summaries, policies, and templates. Snapshots and Updates are complimentary for all registered client users. For more information on the Client Portal or a Client Portal subscription, please email clientportal@ogletree.com.
Ogletree Deakins will host a webinar regarding California’s new employment laws, including the “stay or pay” law, which takes effect immediately, on October 8, 2026, from 2 – 3 p.m. ET. Click here for details and registration.
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