| Fair Employment Practices | The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) forbids employers from discriminating against protected characteristics, such as race, religion, color, national origin and ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, pregnancy, age, or status as a member of the armed forces or veteran.
The FEHA forbids harassment as a form of unlawful discrimination and retaliation against someone who opposes, reports, or helps another person resist illegal discrimination. |
| Pregnancy and Religious Accommodation | The FEHA mandates that employers provide reasonable accommodations for workers who require them due to pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition. Furthermore, it explicitly permits religious accommodation at work. |
| Disability Accommodation | A qualified person with a disability must receive reasonable accommodations from their workplace. |
| Equal Pay | California forbids discrimination in the payment of compensation for identical work based on sex, color, and ethnicity. |
| Access to Personnel Files | In California, employers are required to provide access to personnel information to both current and former workers. |
| Whistleblower Protections | An employer in California cannot create, implement, or enforce any rules, regulations, or policies that forbid employees from coming forward with information about misconduct or that punish them for doing so. |
| Drug Testing | Job candidates may be subjected to drug testing in California. Employers are required to inform candidates of the need for a drug test. |
| Criminal Checks | Any criminal background information that an employer requests must be connected to the position and be necessary for the company's operations. When making employment decisions, the employer may not take certain sorts of criminal background into account, including detention without a finding of guilt, participation in a diversionary program before or after a trial, convictions that a statutory order had ordered sealed, erased, or removed, an arrest, custody, or court ruling that took place when the subject of a juvenile court was involved, and a more than two-year-old nonfelony conviction for marijuana possession. |
| Minimum Wage | California's hourly minimum wage is $15.50. |
| Ban the Box | An employer in California that employs five or more people is not allowed to include any question on a job application that inquires about the applicant's criminal conviction history. This statewide "ban the box" law forbids covered employers from asking about or considering a candidate's criminal background before the candidate receives a conditional offer. |
| Overtime | Under California law, employers must compensate workers for all hours performed more than eight hours every workday and forty hours per week. |
| Rest Breaks | In California, nonexempt workers are entitled to a paid 10-minute break after every four hours of work. |
| Meal Breaks | If a nonexempt employee in California works more than five hours a day, their employer must give them at least a 30-minute break for lunch. |
| Breastfeeding Breaks | Whenever a California employee needs to express milk for their infant kid, the employer must give them a reasonable break to satisfy their needs. |
| Child Labor | According to California law, kids under 16 are prohibited from working in various occupations, including those requiring multiple pieces of equipment, railroads, hazardous substances, scaffolds, and cigarettes. In California, practically all minors must have a work permit. |
| Temporary Disability Insurance | The Employment Development Department (EDD) oversees the State Disability Insurance (SDI) program in California, a state-run program. SDI offers partial salary replacement when an eligible worker cannot perform their regular or customary work owing to a non-work-related illness or injury, including pregnancy-related circumstances. |
| Health Care Continuation | Group health plans offered to firms with two to 19 employees are required by the California Continuation Benefits Replacement Act (Cal-COBRA) to provide continuation coverage to qualified beneficiaries (employees and eligible dependents). |
| Bereavement Leave | The Bereavement Leave Act of California mandates that companies with five or more employees give qualified workers up to five days off work after the death of a family member. |
| Family and Medical Leave | The California Family Rights Act (CFRA) requires employers with five or more employees to offer eligible workers up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave in a calendar year for a qualifying exigency related to the employee's spouse's covered active duty or call to covered active duty, domestic violence, the employee's serious health condition, or the birth, placement for adoption, or foster care of a child. |
| Paid Family Leave | California's Family Temporary Disability Insurance program offers paid family leave (PFL) benefits. |
| Paid Sick Leave | The Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act (HWHFA) allows eligible employees to use paid sick leave for preventive care for themselves or a covered family member, as well as for an employee who has experienced domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking and needs assistance obtaining legal, medical, or social services. |
| Other Time Off Requirements | A California employer must abide by more than a dozen other leave and time off laws besides the CFRA and HWHFA. These laws include those about pregnancy disability leave, kin care leave, family military leave, bone marrow and organ donor leave, school activities leave, school discipline leave, domestic violence, and crime victim leave, going to attend judicial proceedings, jury duty leave, voting leave, official election leave, military leave, civil Air Patrol leave, and more. |
| Occupational Safety and Health | A California employer is required by the California Occupational Safety and Health Act (Cal/OSH Act) to create and maintain a safe and healthy work environment for employees. To this end, the employer must create and maintain a written, effective Injury and Illness Prevention Programme that, among other things, provides training on safe work practices. |
| Smoke-Free Workplace | Smoking—including using e-cigarettes—in California- is prohibited in enclosed workplaces. Employers must take reasonable measures, such as putting up "no smoking" signs, to stop smoking in the office. |
| Safe Driving Practices | In California, it is illegal for drivers to use or operate a hand-held mobile phone or other electronic wireless communications device; however, they are allowed to utilize voice-activated and hands-free features. |
| Final Pay | If employees are let go, their final earnings must be immediately paid. If they decide to resign, they must give their employer at least 72 hours notice. |
