There are many new employer laws that are to take effect on January 1, 2017. However, they all

have a common goal in mind: They seek to improve the life of the California worker.

This law seeks to protect and regulate the working hours of agricultural laborers. It

amends the existing overtime requirements and promises to phase in a new set of

requirements over a period of five years. In 2022, an agricultural worker will be able to

receive twice their hourly rate if they work more than 12 hours a day. This is a

significant improvement that will be sure to benefit the workers as well as providing

incentive for agricultural companies to increase their efficiency so that workers can

complete their tasks within a 40 hour work week.

This law seeks to “level the playing field” by requiring equal pay for equal work.

Companies may no longer discriminate based on gender, race, and ethnicity. Based on

the work that is done, this law allows all workers to be compensated and paid fairly.

This new law prohibits companies from asking their juvenile applicants to disclose

criminal background. The law allows for the mistakes of youth not to impact an adult’s

career as they seek to move forward in a positive direction. While the disclosure of

criminal backgrounds does still apply for adults pursuing employment, their is a distinct

benefit to the juvenile who no longer has to disclose a mistake.

This law preserves and enhances the rights of artists to ownership of their own artistic

material. It extends to protection of their images that could be circulated through social

media and the press. With this new law in place, artists will be able to keep their

creations safe and under their control.

Whereas the foregoing laws benefit the individual worker or artist, this law stands in

stark contrast. This law grants employers the ability to streamline wage statements for

their exempt employees by not requiring them to include an itemized statement of the

hours worked. Since exempt employees are not compensated by the hour, it makes

sense that the employer should not be required to provide an itemized statement

regarding the hours worked.

These laws went into effect January 1, 2017