New Year, New Laws

Yes, the holidays are behind us and all the things we put off until "after the holidays" are now crowding our to-do list. I’ve been in meeting after meeting since everyone returned to work and it appears I’m not the only one who’s busy this month. Of course, Januarys are always like this because many of us have our fiscal year start on the 1st and are gung-ho to work on our goals.

However, we are in California so we can’t forget that most new laws go into effect on January 1st. The changes for us, thus far, include:

• AB 1835 — An increase in the minimum wage to $8.00 per hour. We’ve known about this for over a year so shame on you if you don’t already have posters in place reflecting this amount.
  
• AB 392 — The Leave for Military Spouses was effective last fall but this is the time to make sure you have included it in your Employee Handbook if you have 25+ employees.
  
• AB 14 — The Unruh Act amends the Civil Rights Act of 2007 by making sure businesses do not discriminate against customers. This aligns the non-discrimination policy you already follow for your employees and forces your company to widen the protected group to include your customers. Since an unhappy customer is even more likely to complain than your employee might, pay attention to this. While this does not apply to every type of business, you should check to see if it applies to you.
  
• AB 102 — Now domestic partners and married spouses have the freedom to change their last name to match the other’s upon marriage or domestic partnership registration. Yes, this means a husband could change his name to match his wife’s. Plus it gives the same naming opportunity to domestic partners that married spouses have.
  
• AB 812 — Apparently there are companies who have refused to share payroll information with their worker’s compensation carriers. It seems that not all companies are being honest about how many and what type of employees they have. Under reporting is viewed like running a scam against the carriers. This bill is supposedly the cure by providing big penalties (read "up to 3 X your annual premium") against an employer who does not provide reasonable access to payroll records during a worker’s compensation audit by the carrier. Ouch!
  

The first of the year is always a good time to review your Employee Handbook, practices, and policies to ensure they are all legally compliant and consistent. Also make sure that all supervisors understand (or can look up) their responsibilities.