California Employment Law 2025: How State Protections Are Holding Strong
Written By: Chris Dolan and Candice Sannella:
The landscape of federal employment law continues to shift, with recent policy changes weakening protections in key areas such as wage and hour laws, workplace safety, discrimination, and union rights as federal agencies roll back enforcement of worker protections. These shifts have left many workers vulnerable, particularly in high-risk jobs and underserved communities. However, California employment law continues to offer some of the most comprehensive worker safeguards in the country.
Federal Employment Law Challenges
Recent developments in federal labor laws are causing concern throughout the country about what rights workers may be losing. Federal agencies are revising employee classification rules and dismantling long-standing protections, making it easier for employers to bypass regulations, limit access to employee benefits* and restrict collective bargaining rights. These changes also contribute to weakened workplace safety regulations.
Recent federal labor law rollbacks have reduced the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) effectiveness by conducting fewer inspections and allowing unsafe conditions to persist in hazardous industries, particularly in sectors with high workplace injury and fatality rates, such as construction, agriculture, and manufacturing.
Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employers are prohibited from engaging in workplace discrimination based on certain protected characteristics. However, recent legal rulings and policy shifts have weakened these protections at the federal level, leading to greater uncertainty for workers seeking legal recourse.
California Protections
In contrast to these federal labor rollbacks, California worker protections remain strong, and lawmakers are actively working to strengthen employee rights, ensuring that workers in the state benefit from some of the nation’s most protective labor laws.
California Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5) presumes workers are employees unless they meet specific criteria to be classified as independent contractors, ensuring more workers receive overtime pay, meal breaks, and other employee benefits. California has one of the highest minimum wages in the U.S. with automatic annual increases to adjust for inflation. Cal/OSHA enforces workplace safety law at higher standards than its federal counterpart, ensuring safer work environments for employees in construction, agriculture, and healthcare.
– The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) provides broader workplace protections than federal law, covering additional protected classes, including sexual orientation, gender identity, and immigration status.
– The California Family Rights Act (CFRA) expands job-protected leave benefits beyond what is offered under the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Pregnant employees benefit from stronger protections, as*California mandates reasonable accommodations and additional leave options under the Pregnancy Disability Leave (PDL) law. California’s paid leave laws, including paid sick leave and Paid Family Leave (PFL), offer partial wage replacement for those caring for a newborn or a seriously ill family member. California remains one of the most union-friendly states, with laws restricting employer interference in union organizing efforts and oversight by the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) to ensure fair labor practices for public-sector employees.
In this time, it is important to understand your rights. California employment laws provide a strong safety net for workers. If you believe your rights have been violated, Dolan Law Firm Employment Lawyers are here to help.
