As 2024 quickly approaches, so, too, do many new obligations and restrictions for employers with California employees.

Below, we summarize significant changes to hiring and workforce management, litigation, wage and hour, and other California employment laws taking effect in the new year.

Unless otherwise noted, all new laws discussed below will be effective as of January 1, 2024.

Hiring & Workforce Management

Restrictive Covenants

California has long been the nation’s leader in limiting employers’ use of restrictive covenants. SB 699 and AB 1076 make the California Business and Professions Code (the “B&P Code”), which generally voids restrictive covenants in California, even stricter.

As we previously reported, SB 699 broadens the B&P Code by adding a new Section 16600.5 that:

• provides that any agreement void thereunder is also unenforceable in California regardless of where and when the agreement was signed;
• makes it explicitly unlawful for employers to attempt to enforce or enter into a noncompete agreement (rather than simply voiding such agreements); and
• grants current, former, and prospective employees a private right of action against employers that attempt to enforce or enter into a noncompete agreement.

AB 1076 further builds on these prohibitions by creating a new Section 16600.1, which makes it unlawful for employers to include noncompete clauses in employment agreements or to require an employee to enter into a noncompete. In addition, as we...

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