These new California laws take effect January 2023
By Alexa Mae Asperin Published December 9, 2022 9:30 AM Updated December 12, 2022, 9:04 AM
LOS ANGELES - California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed several new bills into law during the last legislative session. Here is a look at some new laws that will impact your life beginning January 1, 2023.
Abortion (AB-2223)
It protects a woman or pregnant person who chooses to end a pregnancy from prosecution, even if the abortion is self-induced or happens outside the medical system. It also abolishes the requirement that coroners investigate stillbirths and protects someone who helps a pregnant person end their pregnancy voluntarily from criminal or civil liability.
Bereavement leave (AB-1949)
It is illegal for employers with five or more employees to deny employees up to five days of unpaid bereavement leave upon the death of a family member, so long as: (1) the employee seeking leave was employed for at least 30 days before the commencement of leave, and (2) for private employers, the employer has five or more employees. There are separate requirements for public employers.
Bicycles (AB-1909)
The OmniBike Bill makes four changes to the vehicle code. It requires drivers to change lanes whenever passing a bicyclist, if feasible. The bill also stops cities and counties from enforcing bicycle license laws. Additionally, it expands access for people riding e-bikes and allows bikes to cross streets on pedestrian walk signals, rather than only a green traffic light.
Criminal records (SB-731)
Criminal records will still be provided to school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, private schools and state special schools that conduct background checks for job applicants. People who have their records sealed also would be required to disclose their criminal history if asked when applying for a job in law enforcement or public office. Registered sex offenders were excluded from the legislation, and those convicted of serious and violent crimes would have to petition a court to have their records sealed.
The bill would permanently and electronically seal most felony convictions after a person fully completes their sentence, including any time on probation, and would require a certain number of subsequent years without any arrests. The bill would also apply to people who were charged with a felony and served time in state prison and who have a record of an arrest that never resulted in a conviction.
Law enforcement, courts and the state Department of Justice would still have access to the records.
Farmworker unionization (AB-2183)
It expands options for farmworkers to unionize through a vote-by-mail process or through a process where ballot cards are dropped off at the state’s agricultural labor relations board, also known as "majority sign up" or "card check." Advocates said the measure would free workers from intimidation from their employers.
Newsom agreed to sign the bill so long as labor groups agreed to strike the vote-by-mail process from the bill, leaving the card check process to become state law. The groups agreed to cap the amount of card check elections the labor relations board can certify at 75 for the entire state until 2028.
Fast food workers (AB-257)
The bill will set up a 10-member council that would include worker and employer representatives and two state officials, and that would review pay and safety standards across the restaurant industry.
The council could issue health, safety and anti-discrimination regulations and set an industry-wide minimum wage. The legislation caps the figure at $22 an hour in 2023, when the statewide minimum wage will be $15.50. The bill also requires annual cost-of-living adjustments for any new wage floor beginning in 2024.
Fur ban (AB-44)
Signed into law in 2019, it makes California the first state to ban the sale and manufacture of new fur products. Lawmakers had given retailers enough time to phase over and make the changes necessary.
The fur law bars residents from selling or making clothing, shoes or handbags with fur starting in 2023.
The fur ban doesn’t apply to used products or those used for religious or tribal purposes. And it excludes the sale of leather, dog and cat fur, cowhides, deer, sheep and goat skin and anything preserved through taxidermy.
Jaywalking (AB-2147)
Pedestrians can cross the street outside an intersection or crosswalk without being ticketed as long as it is safe to do so. AB-2147, also known as The Freedom to Walk Act, was first introduced by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D- San Francisco), who argued jaywalking bills are arbitrarily enforced, and unequally impact poor people and people of color. The bill defines when an officer can stop and cite a pedestrian for jaywalking - specified as only when a reasonably careful person would realize there is an immediate danger of a collision.
Law enforcement (SB-960)
The bill removes the provision that an individual must be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States in order to become a police officer. The bill makes no distinction between legal and undocumented immigrants.
The bill only allows for legal immigrants to become police officers. However, the language in the bill itself does not specify that undocumented immigrants are barred from doing so.
Leaves of absence (AB-1041)
It amends two laws by relaxing the definition of people an employee can take off time to care for.
The new law adds a "designated person" to the category of existing permitted family members that include a spouse, registered domestic partner, child, parent, parent-in-law, grandparent, grandchild and sibling.
The new law, taking effect Jan. 1, expands both the California Family Rights Act and California’s paid sick leave law, called the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act.
Mental illness (SB-1338)
Gov. Newsom signed the Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment Act in September. It will let family members, first responders and others ask a judge to draw up a treatment plan for someone diagnosed with certain disorders, including schizophrenia. Those who refuse could be placed under a conservatorship and ordered to comply.
The new law would let a court order a treatment plan for up to one year, which could be extended for a second year. The plan could include medication, housing and therapy.
Under CARE Court, families, clinicians, first responders and others will be able to refer individuals suffering from schizophrenia spectrum or psychotic disorders. CARE Court will be implemented statewide and will start with a phased-in approach. The first cohort to implement CARE Court includes the counties of Glenn, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, Stanislaus, Tuolumne and San Francisco.
Minimum wage (SB-3)
The statewide California minimum wage will rise to $15.50 per hour for all employer sizes. In 2022, the minimum wage in California was $14 an hour for employers with 25 or fewer employees and $15 an hour for employers with more than 25 employees.
RELATED: California's minimum wage will increase on Jan. 1, 2023
However, employers in at least 30 cities are already paying a higher local minimum wage, and new increases took effect in some cities lasts July – with at least six cities raising their minimum wage higher than $15.50. Cities with higher minimum wage than the state include Berkeley, Emeryville, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Monica and West Hollywood
Parking mandates near transit (AB-2097)
Cities in California can no longer impose minimum parking requirements on new developments within a half-mile of public transit. The bill would not prevent property owners from building parking but rather limit mandates on minimums. It was introduced by Assembly Member Laura Friedman with the goal of creating more opportunities for housing by lowering the cost of building parking spaces. The bill aims to address California’s housing crisis by removing costly parking mandates in transit-rich areas.
Pink tax (AB-1287)
California businesses are no longer allowed to charge a higher price on products marketed for women, also known as the "Pink Tax." The bill prohibits two "substantially similar" products from the same company from being "priced differently based on the gender of the individuals for whom the goods are marketed and intended." Companies that violate the new law could face hefty fines.
Privacy rights
It’s been two years since voters passed the California Privacy Rights Act, which amended the California Consumer Privacy Act by strengthening privacy laws that prohibit businesses from collecting and sharing consumers’ personal data without their prior consent or knowledge.
Among the amendments taking effect Jan. 1, companies will no longer be allowed to collect information about their workers. Additionally, other than the right to access, the law applies to personal information collected by a business on or after Jan. 1, 2022.
Reproductive health (SB-523)
Also known as the Contraceptive Equity Act, there will be significant changes to California’s employment laws to take effect on January 1.
The new legislation expands protections related to reproductive health decision-making. Under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), the list of protected categories is now expanded to include "reproductive health decision-making," which, under the new law, "includes, but is not limited to, a decision to use or access a particular drug, device, product, or medical service for reproductive health." This means that employers are forbidden from discriminating against an employee or applicant based on "reproductive health decision-making" or requiring employees to disclose information related to "reproductive health decision-making" as a "condition of employment, continued employment, or a benefit of employment."
Sex trafficking penalties (AB-1788)
Under this law, hotels will be subject to civil penalties if a supervisory employee knew or acted with reckless disregard of sex trafficking activity within the hotel and failed to inform law enforcement, the National Human Trafficking Hotline, or another appropriate victim service organization.
Penalties may also be imposed if any hotel employee acted within the scope of their employment and knowingly benefited from participating in a venture that the employee knew about or acted in reckless disregard of the activity constituting sex trafficking.
Transgender youth (AB-107)
The bill aims to stop other states from punishing children who come to California for transgender surgeries and other gender-affirming care. AB-107 is designed to stop Texas and other conservative states from removing children from parents who allow them to receive "gender-affirming" health care, defined as "medically necessary health care that respects the gender identity of the patient, as experienced and defined by the patient."
That would include hormone therapy to suppress secondary sex characteristics and other treatments "to align the patient’s appearance or physical body with the patient’s gender identity."
The law will block out-of-state subpoenas and stop health providers from sharing information related to gender-affirming care with out-of-state entities. And it would give California courts authority to make an initial child custody determination if the child is in California to obtain gender-affirming care.
Workplace safety (SB-1044)
It prohibits an employer from taking or threatening adverse action against any employee for refusing to come to work or leaving if the employee has a "reasonable belief" that the workplace or work site is unsafe. That includes taking an employee’s mobile device and preventing him or her from seeking help.
It also requires an employee to notify the employer of the emergency condition requiring the employee to leave or refuse to report to the workplace or work site. The bill clarifies that these provisions are not intended to apply when emergency conditions that pose an imminent and ongoing risk of harm to the workplace, the worksite, the worker, or the worker’s home have ceased.
Wage Transparency (SB-1162)
SB 1162 requires companies that employ at least 15 people to include salary ranges in all job postings and provide them to existing employees upon request. It expands the requirements for annual pay data reports and requires covered employers to retain certain pay records.
It also broadens SB 973 by requiring the median and mean hourly rate for each combination of race, ethnicity, and sex in the designated job categories. Employers with multiple establishments must submit separate reports for each establishment instead of a consolidated report.
The law is an effort to bolster pay transparency and counter workplace discrimination and aligns California law with several other states, including New York, Nevada, and Washington.
