Existing law establishes the Department of Industrial Relations within the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and sets forth the functions of the department, which include, among others, fostering, promoting, and developing the welfare of the wage earners of California and improving their working conditions. Existing law establishes within the department the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, headed by the Labor Commissioner, for the purposes of enforcing labor laws.
Existing law prohibits an employer from paying any of its employees at wage rates less than the rates paid to employees of the opposite sex for substantially similar work, when viewed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility, and performed under similar working conditions, unless the employer demonstrates that one or more specific factors, reasonably applied, account for the entire wage differential. Existing law also similarly prohibits an employer from paying any of its employees at wage rates less than the rates paid to employees of another race or ethnicity for substantially similar work. Under existing law, a violation of the laws relating to payment of wages, hours, and working conditions is a misdemeanor.
This bill would require a covered employer, as defined, to report to the department the compensation it provides to behavioral health employees and to medical-surgical employees. The bill would authorize the department, if it does not receive a report from a covered employer pursuant to these provisions, to seek an order requiring the employer to comply with the requirement and would entitle the department to recover the costs associated with seeking the order. The bill would authorize a court, upon request by the department, to impose a civil penalty, as prescribed, and would specify that a violation of the above-described reporting requirement does not constitute a misdemeanor.

Statutes affected:
SB 747: 17570 BPC
02/21/25 - Introduced: 17570 BPC
03/24/25 - Amended Senate: 17570 BPC