While the federal government ground to a halt, the California Governor and Legislature have been busy voting on and signing a flurry of new legislation at the end of this year’s legislative session. The following is a survey of new laws of interest to California employers, as well as some notable bills that were not signed into law. Unless otherwise noted, the following pieces of legislation are effective January 1, 2014.

Bills Signed Into Law - WAGE & HOUR:

AB 10 – Minimum Wage Increase. AB 10 increases the minimum wage to $9 an hour effective July 1, 2014, and to $10 an hour as of January 1, 2016. This marks the first increase to California’s minimum wage law since 2008. Provisions that would have indexed future minimum wage increases to the rate of inflation were removed from the bill before it passed the Legislature. Note that this increase will increase the salary requirement for exempt employees to $37,440 in July 2014 under Labor Code § 515(a).