Employer pay data.

Senator Smallwood-Cuevas's employer pay data legislation expands California's existing reporting requirements to include public employers while enhancing privacy protections and enforcement mechanisms for all covered entities. The bill requires public employers with 100 or more employees to submit annual pay data reports beginning May 2027, detailing employee demographics across civil service job categories.

The legislation mandates that employers store demographic information separately from personnel records and establishes mandatory civil penalties for non-compliance. Courts must impose fines of up to $100 per employee for first violations and up to $200 per employee for subsequent failures to file required reports. The penalties are payable to the Civil Rights Enforcement and Litigation Fund, with courts authorized to apportion penalties to labor contractors who fail to provide necessary data.

For both public and private employers, the bill maintains strict confidentiality provisions for individually identifiable information while allowing the Civil Rights Department to publish aggregate statistical reports. The department must retain all pay data reports for a minimum of ten years. The Legislature's findings note that these confidentiality measures protect employee privacy while enabling the collection of data for civil rights enforcement purposes.