Just as the last refrains of “Auld Lang Syne” are sung each New Year’s Eve, a bevy of new laws descend upon us like a balloon drop from above. Some years the new laws seem to outnumber the balloons. This year it’s another close competition.
In California, there are now new laws affecting our workplaces, our homes, our children, our schools, our privacy and our electricity, among others. Why we seem to need so many new laws every year is a puzzler. We think there ought to be a law about making too many laws. What do you think?
Not all laws are bad or too restrictive. Some laws promise new benefits and protections. One of the new laws raises California’s minimum wage level. Some just seem too silly. There’s a new law that will establish rules about who and when someone can eat wild animals killed in road accidents. (It’s complicated.)
The minimum wage will increase by a dollar to $12 an hour for workers at companies with fewer than 25 employees. The minimum wage for larger companies is now $13 an hour. Perhaps the biggest change in our laws is a new definition of independent contractors or “gig” employees. The new California law (AB5) puts strict limits on who qualifies as a non-employee. Workers that take regular orders from a boss, are assigned set schedules or specific assignments are now considered employees, subject to tax withholding and workers compensation coverage. Lots of industries, including newspapers, will be impacted.
Other new workplace laws require businesses with five or more employees to provide regular sexual harassment training, provide appropriate lactation accommodations for nursing mothers, resist discrimination against workers with unique hairstyles like braids, twists and locks and eliminates forced arbitration agreements.
Another very big law being put in place concerns online privacy. Whether it works or not, will be a big test. Rushed into law in June by the state legislature, the new California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) will be watched all around the world. The CCPA supposedly gives all internet and social media users the right to control their privacy and any data collected about them. This law is largely focused on Google and Facebook, but applies to all internet-based entities that collect private data including GPS tracking, search engine queries, profiles and user settings. The trick is that individuals must first request in writing to have Google or another company supply them with all their collected data. The user can then decide to have it all deleted or ask to have their personal data untouched and not collected in the future. To all this, we say, good luck.
There is a series of new laws that were triggered by our experience with last year’s wildfires and the forced power shut-offs by PG&E. A new law (SB 167) is supposed to force PG&E to devise plans on reducing the negative impacts of planned power shutoffs. (More wishes of good luck.) Another law grants the Public Utilities Commission more oversight over tree trimming work by PG&E and all utilities. The new SB 209 will establish a wildfire warning center to improve the state’s ability to predict and prepare for wildfires. It requires installation of a large network of weather stations and cameras.
Sometimes we like to look at what laws were not passed or vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Suffice it to say, the governor’s veto pen must be very low in ink. By a rough estimate, almost 1,000 bills were designated for the state’s trash bin last year. Don’t worry; it’s very likely most of them will be re-introduced this year by state senators and assembly members.
At our 2020 New Year’s Eve parties, we should have a contest and vote for the stupidest new law. This year’s unofficial winner would have to be SB 395 establishing Wildlife Salvage Permits that covers who gets to eat road kill. How delectable.
— Rollie Atkinson
