Elena Hillman, Michele Ballard Miller, and Nicole Perkin were quoted in an HR Dive article discussing upcoming changes to California employment law in 2026. Based on Cozen O’Connor’s webinar, “California Employment Law Update: The Year in Review and Looking Forward to 2026,” the article highlights ten significant changes, including new requirements for workplace notices and a minimum wage increase.

Addressing the impact of these new laws on employers, Michele Ballard Miller noted, “Everybody knows California tends to have these new laws that are challenging, to say the least.” One example is the new ‘Know Your Rights’ notice requirement (SB 294), which mandates that employers provide annual notices on topics such as workers’ compensation, immigration inspections, and union organizing. However, the responsibility does not fall entirely on employers. As Elena Hillman explained, “The good news is that employers are not tasked with coming up with this notice.” Instead, California’s labor commissioner will provide a template that employers can modify.

Another change is a prohibition on employers requiring employees to repay certain debts if they are terminated (AB 692). To qualify for an exemption, the employee must have voluntarily resigned or been terminated for misconduct. Nicole Perkin counseled, “Make sure that human resources or whoever is going to be enforcing this understands the definition of misconduct and that that’s going to be a high burden and hard to meet. Your run of the mill termination is probably unlikely to satisfy that.”

To read the full article, click here.