New California Laws Signed in 2026 for Employers and Businesses

AB 1331 (Chapter 851, Statutes of 2026) bars employers from using workplace surveillance tools to monitor employees in a workplace bathroom unless a court orders it. Employees may leave surveillance tools they carry outside when they enter a bathroom, with exceptions such as badges or alarms required for identification or safety that do not record audio or video and have no built-in AI. The Labor Commissioner and public prosecutors can enforce it, with a penalty of up to $500 per violation. It takes effect January 1, 2027.

AB 1883 (Chapter 853, Statutes of 2026) bars employers from using an AI-powered workplace surveillance tool on employees to recognize or predict their emotional state, or to collect neural data. Tools used for safety, or that do neither, remain allowed, and some aerospace and defense work is exempt. The Labor Commissioner and public prosecutors can enforce it, with a penalty of up to $500 per violation. It takes effect January 1, 2027.

SB 947 (Chapter 859, Statutes of 2026) limits how employers may use automated decision systems in employment, beginning July 1, 2027. When an employer primarily relies on such a system to discipline or fire someone, it must give the employee a written notice afterward and, on request, a description of the employee's own data the system primarily used. Retaliating against employees who assert these rights is barred, and violations carry a civil penalty of $500 each.

SB 951 (Chapter 860, Statutes of 2026) requires a Cal/WARN notice for a mass layoff, relocation or termination caused in whole or in substantial part by AI or other automated technology to include specified details, including the job functions that will be automated. EDD will publish a summary of the notices it receives. It takes effect January 1, 2027.

AB 1697 (Chapter 889, Statutes of 2026), an urgency law that took effect when the Governor signed it on September 30, 2026, moves California's ban on stay-or-pay employment contracts to contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2027, instead of January 1, 2026. It also adds exceptions, including some recruitment and retention bonuses, repayment of advanced paid time off on voluntary separation, and certain broker-dealer, insurance producer and investment adviser affiliation contracts.

SB 1149 (Chapter 679, Statutes of 2026) lets employees take California bereavement leave for the death of a designated person: anyone related to them by blood or whose association with them is the equivalent of a family relationship. An employer may limit each employee to one designated person per 12-month period. The leave law covers employers with 5 or more employees and public employers. It takes effect January 1, 2027.

AB 2563 (Chapter 952, Statutes of 2026) requires every California law that bans discrimination based on sex or gender to be read as banning sex discrimination as the bill defines it, including discrimination based on degree of conformity to sex or gender stereotypes. It adds that definition to "sex" in both the Fair Employment and Housing Act and the Unruh Civil Rights Act. It takes effect January 1, 2027.

AB 1803 (Chapter 547, Statutes of 2026) requires the sexual harassment training that employers with 5 or more employees must provide every two years to include anti-hate speech training, beginning January 1, 2028.

SB 1237 (Chapter 1019, Statutes of 2026) raises the civil penalty for a private employer's repeat failure to file its annual California pay data report with the Civil Rights Department from up to $200 to up to $1,000 per employee. A first failure stays at up to $100 per employee. The change is operative January 1, 2027.

AB 2150 (Chapter 384, Statutes of 2026) requires an employer that requires employees to get CPR certification to also have them take an online video training on using naloxone to reverse opioid overdoses, with limited exceptions. The Emergency Medical Services Authority approves the training modules, and a violation is a crime. It takes effect January 1, 2027.

AB 2321 (Chapter 936, Statutes of 2026) makes it a misdemeanor to willfully resist, impede or interfere with Cal/OSHA investigators, or to willfully violate a related court order. It also makes a willful safety violation by an employer or a supervising employee a crime when it causes serious injury, illness or exposure, not only death or prolonged impairment. It takes effect January 1, 2027.

SB 1111 (Chapter 862, Statutes of 2026) makes clear that California's right-of-publicity law covers digital replicas, meaning realistic computer-generated versions of a person's voice or likeness. It also removes the rule that presumed an employer's use of an employee's photo or likeness, when incidental to an advertisement, was not a knowing use without consent. It takes effect January 1, 2027.

AB 1683 (Chapter 59, Statutes of 2026) lets employers keep paying workers' compensation disability indemnity into prepaid card accounts indefinitely. Under prior law that authorization ended January 1, 2027.

Body art facilities must post human trafficking notice and train employees/practitioners by July 1, 2027 under AB 1918.

AB-2477 lets unlicensed employees apply Branch 2/3 pesticides outdoors under supervision starting Jan 1, 2028, with new training and recordkeeping requirements.

New law requires large group health plans/insurance to cover hearing aids for enrollees under 21 starting January 1, 2028.

SB 923 (Chapter 482, Statutes of 2026) expands the CCPA right to delete to cover personal information a business collected about a consumer, not only information collected from them. A business that operates only online and has a direct relationship with consumers must also offer an online method, such as a web form or portal, for privacy requests. It takes effect January 1, 2027.

AB 2246 (Chapter 187, Statutes of 2026) repeals California's Age-Appropriate Design Code Act and replaces it with similar rules, without the old act's exceptions, for online services, products and features likely to be accessed by children. Covered businesses must take reasonable steps to prevent specified risks of harm to children, a child can void contract terms that resulted from a design feature, and the Attorney General or a public prosecutor can sue. It takes effect January 1, 2027.

AB 1793, the California Common Cents Act (Chapter 896, Statutes of 2026), requires merchants to round the cash-paid portion of a transaction to the nearest 5 cents starting July 1, 2027. The rounding is ignored when computing tax, fees and surcharges, and collecting more than the rounded amount carries the same remedies as overcharging.

AB-2633 expands secondhand dealer regulation to any business (not just "principal" business) buying/selling used goods, effective Jan 1, 2027.

AB-2076 adds nitrous oxide to age-verification rules for online sales, bans gift-card payment, raises penalties up to $250,000 per violation.

SB 758 bans retail sale of nitrous oxide statewide, with limited exceptions, under tobacco licensing law, effective Jan 1, 2027.

AB-2532 adds poison-control labeling and serving-size/measuring-device rules for cannabis edibles and beverages, phased in through July 1, 2027.

AB-1405 requires state agency to create an AI Auditor Registry by Jan 1, 2029, barring unregistered persons from conducting covered AI audits.

AB-1979 expands CMIA to cover AI health chatbots and requires AI-informed clinical decisions preserve licensed providers' independent judgment.

New CA law requires disclosure and unaltered images when digitally altered photos are used in rental property ads, effective Jan 1, 2027.

AB-2272 lets subcontractors on state contracts request payment status from agencies and requires prime contractors to confirm payments, effective 2027.