New Laws for California Employment in 2012

There are nearly 24 new employment laws that will become effective on January 1, 2012. This information has been provided by the California Chamber of Commerce. Each of these laws will vary from one another. Some of the laws have to do with the discrimination against employees, which will be absolutely prohibited. Employers will be unable to discriminate against employees based on their gender and genetics amongst other things. More employers will also be forced to provide health and medical coverage to women who are out of work on their pregnancy/maternity leave. Laws will also be set that provide employees with information on how much time they can receive off from work after donating an organ or bone marrow. Some employers will also be prohibited from doing a credit check on potential employers which is definitely a good law to put into place, according to SFGate.

The fact of the matter is, these laws that are being made in California, have been designed with the employees in mind. These laws protect them by all means necessary. While protection for employees is obviously the main purpose of most of these laws, the laws can put a burden on employers, especially while the economy and the job market are still not what they once were prior to the recession. However, some of these laws will benefit employers too which makes these new laws a win-win situation for both employees and employers.

One of the lawyers for the chamber admits that these laws that are being made for California are definitely a lot longer than some of the other law lists that have been made years prior. However, the list is also shorter than some of the laws that were made years ago. Susan Kemp, the chamber’s senior employment law counsel, has said, “It’s kind of in the middle.”

Kemp also says, “Not every one of the new laws applies across the board to every employer, but if you take just a couple of laws that apply to most employers and add them up over the number of employees they have, it’s going to create more administrative (chores) and more responsibility for the employer.”

Kemp believes that there are two specific laws that will affect employers the most. The first law is one that has been made which will require all employers to give workers a notice about overtime which also includes information on the amount of money they will be paid, how they will be paid, and what types of wages will be included along with their pay. For example, some employers pay hourly while other employers pay their employees through a salary.

The second law will require employers who have more than five employees to provide employees with health coverage. The employer will have to set up a group health plan.