Existing law establishes the Civil Rights Department within the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency to enforce civil rights laws with respect to housing and employment and to protect and safeguard the right of all persons to obtain and hold employment without discrimination based on specified characteristics or status.
Existing law requires a private employer that has 100 or more employees to submit an annual pay data report to the Civil Rights Department that includes the number of employees by race, ethnicity, and sex in specified job categories, whose pay falls within federal pay bands, and within each job category the median and mean hourly rate for each combination of those characteristics as specified.
This bill would require an employer to collect and store any demographic information gathered by an employer or labor contractor for the purpose of submitting the pay data report separately from employees' personnel records.
This bill would also expand the demographics for the reporting requirements to also include sexual orientation and require the report to include information by sexual orientation about the number of employees in specified job categories, whose pay falls within federal pay bands, and within each job category the median and mean hourly rate for each combination of the specified characteristics. The bill would require that the information regarding an employee's sexual orientation be collected only if voluntarily disclosed by the employee.
Existing law authorizes the department, if it does not receive the pay data report, to seek an order requiring an employer to comply with these provisions. Existing law provides that upon the request of the department, a court may impose a civil penalty upon any employer for failure to file the required report, which shall be payable to the Civil Rights Enforcement and Litigation Fund.
This bill would require a court to impose a civil penalty against an employer that fails to file the report if requested to do so by the department.
Existing law makes it unlawful for any officer or employee of the department to make public any identifiable information before an investigation or enforcement proceeding involving that information, and then only to the extent necessary for the purposes of that proceeding.
This bill would, notwithstanding that provision, require the department to publish private employer reports provided that the publication is reasonably calculated to prevent the association of any data with any individual person.
Commencing May 2027, this bill would also require public employers with 100 or more employees to submit an annual pay data report with specified information, including demographic data provided by employees relative to ethnicity, race, disability, veteran status, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation organized by job category as listed in the civil service pay scale, as specified.
Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.
This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.

Statutes affected:
SB 464: 12999 GOV
02/19/25 - Introduced: 12999 GOV
04/10/25 - Amended Senate: 12999 GOV