View the complete 2027 California law updates hub.
California’s 2027 employment-law calendar is already taking shape. Some rules are locked in. Others are enrolled bills sitting on Governor Newsom’s desk, with a September 30, 2026 deadline to sign or veto. Unless a bill has an urgency clause or its own later date, signed measures generally take effect January 1, 2027.
This roundup is written for workers. It covers the wage and overtime numbers that are already set, two enforcement bills the Governor already signed, and the major pending measures on AI discipline, leave, FEHA, and immigration-related retaliation. For last year’s landscape, see our 2026 California employment law updates and 2024 roundup.
Status note: Pending bills are not law until signed (or until they become law without a signature after the deadline). Recheck after September 30, 2026 before relying on a still-unsigned measure.
Confirmed: Statewide Minimum Wage Rises to $17.40
Effective January 1, 2027, California’s statewide minimum wage increases to $17.40 per hour, up from $16.90 in 2026. The Department of Finance certified the inflation adjustment on July 31, 2026; the Department of Industrial Relations announced the rate in August.
Key worker points:
- Piece-rate and most other non-exempt workers must still receive at least the applicable minimum wage for all hours worked.
- Many cities and counties already require a higher local rate. You are entitled to the higher of the state or local minimum wage where you work.
- Fast-food and certain health-care workers remain subject to separate industry minimums that can exceed the statewide rate.
- Paystubs must list the wage rate. Shorting the new rate can support claims for unpaid wages, liquidated damages, and penalties.
If your employer keeps paying 2026 rates after January 1, document hours and paystubs and get advice promptly. Underpayment is often paired with overtime, meal-break, and rest-break issues. See our overview of overtime violations.
Confirmed: Exempt Salary Threshold Rises to $72,384
The white-collar overtime exemptions (executive, administrative, and professional) require a salary of at least twice the state minimum wage for full-time work. DIR’s formula for 2027 is:
$17.40 × 2 × 40 hours × 52 weeks = $72,384 per year (about $1,392 per week).
That is up from $70,304 in 2026. Meeting the dollar threshold is only one part of the test. The employee must also perform exempt duties. A “manager” title and a salary just over $72,384 do not make someone exempt if they spend most of their time on non-exempt work.
If you are classified as salaried-exempt but your pay will fall below $72,384 on January 1, 2027—or your job duties never matched the exemption—you may be owed overtime, missed-break premiums, and related penalties. Local minimum wages do not raise this statewide salary test.
Already Signed: Stronger Misclassification and Retaliation Tools
Two employment bills were signed on August 27, 2026:
- SB 1444 lets an individual worker recover the civil penalties for willful independent-contractor misclassification under Labor Code section 226.8—not only the Labor Commissioner or a public prosecutor. If you were labeled a 1099 contractor while treated like an employee, this adds a direct penalty path on top of unpaid wages and expense reimbursement. See employee misclassification lawsuits.
- SB 1316 bars an employer from using records at a Labor Commissioner retaliation hearing that it failed to produce when the Labor Commissioner asked for them. Employers who stonewall document requests can lose the chance to rely on those records later.
Pending: “No Robo Bosses” and Workplace AI (SB 947, SB 951, AB 1883, AB 1331)
If signed, SB 947 (the “No Robo Bosses Act”) would, beginning July 1, 2027, prohibit employers from relying solely on an automated decision system to discipline or fire a worker. A human would have to make the final decision with independent corroborating evidence. The bill would also restrict systems that infer protected characteristics, score personality or emotional state, or identify workers who exercise legal rights, and it would require after-the-fact written notice when such a system is primarily used in a discipline or termination decision.
Attendance-point software that auto-generates write-ups, scheduling tools that flag “unreliable” workers, and camera analytics that score productivity can all fall within that concept. A private right of action and Labor Commissioner enforcement are part of the enrolled version.
Related pending bills:
- SB 951 would require California WARN notices for mass layoffs driven in whole or substantial part by AI or automation to say so, identify the functions being automated, and keep the existing 60-day notice period.
- AB 1883 would prohibit AI workplace tools that collect neural data or claim to recognize an employee’s emotional state.
- AB 1331 would bar surveillance in workplace bathrooms and allow employees to leave tracking devices behind when they enter those areas.
Governor Newsom vetoed a broader “robo bosses” bill last year. SB 947 is narrower, but it is not law until signed.
Pending: FEHA, Menopause, and Bereavement Leave
- AB 1940 would add perimenopause, menopause, postmenopause, and related medical conditions to FEHA’s definition of “sex,” bringing discrimination, harassment, and reasonable-accommodation duties with them. CRD would have to update the workplace poster by July 1, 2027.
- AB 2563 would harmonize “sex discrimination” across California codes, including stereotype nonconformity, and would fold menopause-related conditions into FEHA’s definition of “sex” if AB 1940 also takes effect.
- SB 1149 would expand California bereavement leave (up to five days for employers with five or more employees) to a “designated person” chosen by the employee, similar to CFRA and paid sick leave. Employers could limit employees to one designated person per 12-month period.
These would be handbook and interactive-process changes for employers—and new statutory hooks for workers who are denied leave, accommodation, or who face harassment tied to menopause or gender-stereotype nonconformity. Recent FEHA case law is covered in our FEHA legal update.
AB 1803 would add an anti-hate-speech component to existing sexual-harassment training, but not until January 1, 2028.
Pending: Immigration-Related Retaliation Penalties (AB 2495)
Labor Code section 1019 already forbids unfair immigration-related practices used to retaliate against workers. AB 2495 would expand that prohibition to conduct tied to a person’s actual or perceived immigration status that would reasonably tend to dissuade someone from exercising legal rights—or to coerce them into giving up rights. The worker’s actual status would not matter. The enrolled bill adds a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per person per violation, payable to the person harmed.
Comments about “papers,” threats to call immigration authorities during a wage dispute, or extra I-9 demands after a complaint could carry new statutory exposure if the bill is signed. California labor claims already do not turn on immigration status; this measure is aimed at the intimidation that keeps people from asserting those claims.
Pending: Stay-or-Pay Contracts Shifted to 2027 (AB 1697)
AB 692 (2025) restricted “stay-or-pay” terms—training-repayment clauses, sign-on bonus clawbacks, and similar debts that come due when employment ends. AB 1697 is an urgency bill that would move the operative date for those restrictions to contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2027 (instead of January 1, 2026) and add exceptions for certain grant-funded recruitment/retention programs, repayment of advanced PTO on voluntary separation, and specified securities/insurance producer agreements.
If you were asked to sign a training-repayment or bonus-clawback agreement, the date of the contract and the final text of AB 1697 both matter. Do not assume every clawback is automatically void.
Other Pending Measures Workers May See
- AB 2646 would set a $19.75 hourly minimum for specified agricultural employees (including H-2A workers and corresponding employees doing the same work), with annual cost-of-living adjustments beginning in 2027.
- AB 2321 would tighten Cal/OSHA criminal-referral duties after serious injuries and make willful interference with an inspector a misdemeanor.
- AB 1961 / AB 2179 would make workplace-violence restraining orders easier for employers to seek (including location-wide protection and remote appearances)—relevant if you are dealing with a threatening coworker or patron, or if an order is sought against you.
What This Means for California Workers
- Check your rate on January 1, 2027. Statewide floor is $17.40; local and industry rates may be higher. Salaried “exempt” workers generally need at least $72,384 and exempt duties.
- Misclassification has a new penalty path. SB 1444 lets workers pursue 226.8 civil penalties themselves.
- Watch AI and scoring tools. If SB 947 is signed, discipline or firing that comes only from software should not stand without a human decision and corroboration after July 1, 2027.
- Leave and FEHA may widen. Designated-person bereavement leave and menopause-related sex discrimination would be significant if AB 1940 and SB 1149 are signed.
- Immigration-status threats are a legal issue, not just a scare tactic. AB 2495 would add a $10,000-per-violation penalty on top of existing retaliation law.
If your pay, classification, leave, or termination does not match these rules—or if your employer is already using automated write-ups, stay-or-pay contracts, or immigration-related threats—contact Jonny Law to discuss your situation. This post is general information about California employment developments as of September 17, 2026. It is not legal advice about any specific case, and unsigned bills can still be vetoed.
Sources: DIR News Release 2026-66 (statewide minimum wage and exempt salary formula); enrolled 2026 session bills including SB 1444, SB 1316, SB 947, SB 951, SB 1149, AB 1940, AB 2563, AB 2495, AB 1697, AB 1883, and AB 1331.
