California’s 2025 legislative session produced sweeping changes to employment law that will significantly reshape employer compliance obligations beginning January 1, 2026. New requirements expand pay data reporting, strengthen equal pay and pay transparency standards, introduce enhanced enforcement authority over gratuity violations, clarify protections tied to bias mitigation training, broaden employee record access rights, and signal increased regulatory oversight of workplace artificial intelligence tools. Collectively, these developments increase compliance complexity and heighten employers’ exposure if they fail to prepare.
In a recent Law360 article, Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani Partner Alexa Foley outlines six key employment laws California employers need to know heading into 2026, offering practical guidance on how to adapt policies, systems, and internal processes in advance of the new year.
Foley emphasizes the importance of proactive compliance, encouraging employers to modernize data systems, revisit job classifications and compensation structures, strengthen recordkeeping protocols, and evaluate training and AI governance practices to mitigate legal risk under California’s evolving regulatory landscape.
Foley is a Partner in the firm’s Employment practice. She advises employers on compliance, risk management, and litigation strategy, with a focus on wage-and-hour issues, pay equity, workplace policies, and emerging employment law developments, including the use of artificial intelligence in employment decision-making.
Read the full article, Six California Employment Laws Employers Must Prepare for in 2026, on the GRSM website.
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