This fall, the California Legislature and Governor Gavin Newsom enacted various laws expanding employee protections and employer obligations.
This Insight summarizes the more significant aspects of these laws, which may necessitate changes to employers’ policies or procedures.
Unless otherwise indicated, the laws discussed below take effect on January 1, 2026.
One of the more significant updates taking effect soon will limit an employer’s ability to claw back sign-on bonuses, recoup relocation expenses, and even obtain repayment of voluntarily covered educational expenses (sometimes referred to as training repayment agreement provisions, or TRAPs) from an employee whose employment has terminated.
With certain exceptions, existing California law declares void any contract that restrains a person from engaging in a lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind. Further, updates to this law that went into effect in 2024 made it explicitly unlawful for an employer to include a noncompete clause in an employment agreement or to require an employee to enter into a noncompete agreement.
AB 692 adds a section to California’s restrictive covenants law that makes it unlawful to require, or to include in any contract a requirement, that workers repay debts, including, but not limited to, employment- and education-related costs, upon termination of employment, making such...
In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on Wednesday, President Trump rebuked European allies and reasserted his ambitions to seize Greenland. He also distorted Greenland’s history, ...