California Legislative Update: Which Bills Made The Final Cut?

Although the California Legislature sent Governor Jerry Brown bills on bed bugs, powdered alcohol, and making denim the official state fabric, the laws enacted in 2016 affecting the state's private-sector employers were decidedly less exotic.

Governor Brown ended his workweek on September 30, 2016, by signing and vetoing the last of the hundreds of bills that the Legislature had passed and sent to his office in the waning weeks of the 2016 legislative session, which ended in August. This year, he signed or otherwise let take effect 892 of the approximately 1,059 bills that made their way to his desk, and vetoed the balance (159, or about 15%).¹

The following are this year's major legislative developments affecting employment law for California private-sector employers.² Unless otherwise noted, all new laws become effective January 1, 2017.