HR News

Labor Law Updates for 2025

It’s hard to believe that 2025 is just around the corner! The year ahead will bring a variety of changes to California employment laws, impacting your HR policies and company procedures. We know it’s challenging to keep up with all of the new requirements while staying focused on your business, and Sierra HR is here to help! Below is a summary of key legislative changes and action steps you can take to ensure your company remains compliant and well-prepared.

California Minimum Wage: Effective January 1, 2025, our statewide minimum wage will increase to $16.50 per hour. This means the new minimum salary for an exempt employee must be at least $68,640 per year. (Employers in the healthcare industry or cities/counties with minimum wage ordinances may have higher requirements.)

Action Step: Review all employees’ wage rates to ensure compliance. If any exempt employees’ salaries will no longer meet the minimum requirement, consider either increasing the salary or transitioning the employee to non-exempt (hourly) status.

Senate Bill 1100 – Driver’s License Discrimination: This law prohibits employers from requiring an employee to have a driver’s license as a job qualification, unless the job duties will include driving. The employer must also be able to show that allowing those duties to be done through other means of transportation, such as riding a bicycle or using a ride share service, would not be comparable in travel time or cost to the employer.

Action Step: Review your job descriptions and job announcements to identify any positions that include a driver’s license as a required qualification. Consider whether driving is actually a necessary part of each position, and make appropriate edits. Sierra HR Partners is available to help you analyze job requirements, if desired.

Assembly Bill 2123 – Required Use of Vacation Benefits Before Paid Family Leave: Current law allows employers to require the use of up to two weeks’ vacation/PTO before an employee may claim Paid Family Leave benefits through the EDD. Effective January 1, 2025, this law will prohibit employers from making this requirement. Employees may elect to use accrued vacation/PTO to coordinate with PFL payments received from the state during a leave of absence.

Action Step: Review your Employee Handbook policies and Leave of Absence notices to ensure compliance. Be sure to share this change with supervisors to ensure consistency in employee communications.

Assembly Bill 2499 – Protections for Victims of Crime: Existing state law provides leave entitlements and on-the-job protections for employees who are victims of domestic violence and other specified crimes. The new law expands eligibility to include employees who are victims of “qualifying acts of violence” and adds protections for employees whose family members are crime victims. There will also be a new posting requirement, with a form available from the Civil Rights Department by July 1, 2025.

Action Step: Review your Employee Handbook policies and company procedures regarding leaves and protections for victims of crime to ensure compliance. Train supervisors to recognize employee cues of the need for leave or accommodations, and engage in an interactive process with employees who may need support.

Senate Bill 1137: Discrimination Claims, Combination of Characteristics: This law adopts the concept of “intersectionality” as an analytical framework which claims that different forms of inequality operate together, exacerbate each other, and can result in amplified forms of prejudice and harm. The Unruh Civil Rights Act and the Fair Employment and Housing Act prohibit discrimination based upon the combination of any two or more protected bases.

Action Step: Continue to maintain a workplace that is characterized by professionalism and respect, and train supervisors and employees to avoid conduct that is, or could be perceived to be, hostile or discriminatory on the basis of any protected characteristic, of combination of them.

Senate Bill 399 – Worker Freedom from Employer Intimidation: This law prohibits employers from taking adverse action against employees who decline to attend mandatory meetings or read employer communications on religious or political matters. An employee who is working at the time of a meeting but elects not to attend must be paid for his/her entire schedule.

Action Step: We feel like this should go without saying, but don’t conduct mandatory employee meetings on political or religious topics. If a related subject is particularly important to the company and an employee meeting is deemed beneficial, be sure employees understand that attendance is voluntary and avoid retaliatory actions against any employee who chooses not to attend.

UPDATE: Healthcare Minimum Wage Increase Effective October 16, 2024

On October 1, we let you know that California’s increasing minimum wage for healthcare workers was likely to become effective in the near future… and we didn’t have to wait long for the announcement to be made.

Later that day, the California Department of Health Care Services notified the Joint Legislative Budget Committee that it had initiated the process of data retrieval relating to hospital quality assurance fees. According to state law, the increased minimum wage rates become effective 15 days from this notification, which will be October 16.

Healthcare employers who are covered by this law should finalize their plans to implement necessary wage increases effective on October 16. If you’re uncertain whether the increased wages apply to your business, we recommend seeking attorney guidance in order to make a confident decision.