And You Wonder Why Companies Want to Leave California

I just received a recent California update of legislation waiting for signature by Governor Jerry Brown. Some bills would do the following

• Limit inquiries about salary history and provide applicants with this pay scale of the desired position.
• Protect women from discipline related to reproductive health including the use of any drug, device or medical service.
• The requirement to provide an employee with a written injury prevention program within 10 days of the request.
• Additional “ban the box” legislation prohibiting employees from asking about past convictions on any application for employment until after a conditional offer of employment is made.
• And increase in whistleblower fines from a maximum of $20,000-$75,000 for violations in healthcare facilities
• A requirement that all employees of 500 more employees collect and report information bi-annually on gender pay wage differentials.
• A requirement that all “direct” construction contractors be deemed liable for any wage claim incurred by a subcontractor.
• Additional protections for military service members from hostile workplace environments.
• An expansion of the California Family Rights Act from employers with 50 employees down to employers with 20 employees.
• The authorization of retaliation claim procedure which would provide injunctive relief, before the underlying case has been completely investigated or litigated to determine whether a violation has occurred.

This is in addition to the usual handful of unique California employment law cases reported every month.

They should just pass a law that says everybody is protected from everything and we can save a whole bunch of legislative time. Look, it’s not like I don’t care about women’s reproductive rights, or military personnel, or convicts, or construction workers getting paid, or health care whistle-blowers. Heck, I represented plaintiffs during my 17-year litigation career. My 30 plus years experience as a lawyer tells me we can’t ask managers and HR folks to solve all of the society’s problems. Where does the regulation ever end?

I often kid with HR executives around the country that their California counterparts have, by a large magnitude, the most difficult compliance job in the country. California has been a leader in the development of employment law from the time I began my law practice in 1983. Many laws, regulations, rules, and procedures adopted in California eventually find their way across the country. There’s not a law we don’t like to pass.

Now that the EEOC, who under the Obama Administration was aggressively expanding and enforcing employee rights, is in the hands of the Trump Administration, I’m certain the expansion efforts and aggressiveness will end. That means state legislatures will take over in that role…much as California, New York, Illinois, Washington and other states with active legislatures have already done.

Bottom line is somebody should be staying on top of employment law developments at your company. Especially if you work in California!

PS After writing this article I asked an interesting question: do California employee report a higher job satisfaction, sense of job security and productivity as a result of all these laws? Are they happier than employees in Nebraska or Idaho or Georgia with few state laws? I’d be curious to see the data on it.