 2016: Te California Fair Pay Act was enacted to strengthen the federal Equal Pay Act of 1963 making it unlawful for California employers to:


Discriminate between employees on the basis of sex, race, or ethnicity in the payment of wages or other compensation for substantially similar work.


Pay wages or other compensation to any employee at a rate greater than the rate at which the employer pays employees of the opposite sex, or of another race, or of another ethnicity for substantially similar work, when viewed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility


Screen job applicants or determine compensation for a position based on current or past compensation of a prospective employee.


Withhold pay scale information when requested by an applicant.


How do we know what is reasonably known to be unwelcome? Tis is a matter that juries decide. As history shows, the definition changes over time. Some activities are now prohibited that at the beginning of the last decade were considered part of the job or tolerable conditions. For example, posters of scantily clad women in the office; being screamed at by a boss, prohibiting criminals in housing, etc. used to be commonplace and are now likely considered to be evidence of harassment or discrimination. Te law follows societal views, which are ever changing. What we view as unreasonable harassment today will continue to evolve as we move through the next decade.


Let’s take a look at some of the most significant legislative changes:


 Effective January 1, 2010: While cyberbullying, on- line stalking, or trolling individuals on social media plat- forms isn’t new this decade, making it a criminal offense is. California Penal Code 653.2 made electronic harassment a crime punishable with up to one year of jail time and a penalty up to $1,000


 2011: Te Gender Nondiscrimination Act, which directly adds “gender identity” to existing non-discrimination pro- tections in California. While gender identity protections had been clarified previously under the class of sex, this bill strengthens those protections with explicit language


 2013: California provides same sex marriage equality


 2015: Obergefell v. Hodges: Te U.S. Supreme Court de- clared that denying same-sex couples the freedom to marry violates the U.S. Constitution. Tis decision invalidated all state statutes and constitutional amendments barring same-sex couples from marriage.


 2016: California requires employers to have written ha- rassment, discrimination and retaliation prevention poli- cies


8 


Retaliate against an employee who brings a complaint or files a claim under the Equal Pay Act.


 2017: California passes an act allowing citizens to identify as “non-binary” on official documents. Non-binary people have gender identities that are not exclusively masculine or femi- nine. In addition, the non-binary movement is working to end discrimination of gender all together.


 2017: Te #metoo movement gained significant traction with high profile celebrity cases


 2018: California requires sexual harassment training annually for supervisors and bi-annually for employees effective 2021


 2018: California makes employers liable to take steps to stop 3rd party harassment if they knew or should have known about the harassment and didn’t stop it


 2018: California’s stray remark doctrine makes a one-off state- ments evidence of harassment; even if just overheard by the person who claims harassment


 2018: California declares a single incident is sufficient to cre- ate a hostile work environment


 2018: Since prohibiting people with a criminal record from the workplace creates a disparate impact on African Americans and Latinx people, the state made it illegal to ask if someone has a criminal record on a job application


 2018: Te California Property Service Workers Act is adopt- ed, protecting janitorial and maintenance workers who are a group that has higher rates of harassment and sexual harass- ment, than other types of employment


 2018: State defines national origin as someone having “ac- tual or perceived” characteristics of their ancestors, including names, language, marital relatives, membership in associations


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32