New Laws in California 2024

Here is a look at 70 new laws in California for 2024 which go into effect in January or July.

In 2023, over a 1,000 bills made it to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk last year and many are set to take effect in 2024.

There are plenty of bills getting much media attention from minimum wage bills to human trafficking and firearms, but there are other bills that will impact everyday people and businesses in California—in fact, nearly 900 new bills will become law.

Locally, an ordinance in the City of Lafayette is set to begin in July which follows a ban on Small off-road engines – Under AB 1346, it basically new gasoline-powered leaf blowers, lawnmowers, chainsaws, generators and other small off-road engines beginning Jan. 1, 2024. — see that story.

Consumer Law

• Campsite Reservations – Under AB 618, this imposes fees on state campsite reservations and those who cancel within 2-6 days of their stays, including the cost of the first night.
• Entertainment Zones – SB 76 authorize a music venue licensee to sell, serve, and permit consumption of alcoholic beverages during private events or private functions not open to the general public within any hours of operation permitted by its license, regardless of whether any live performance occurs. Additionally, would authorize a licensed beer manufacturer, a licensed winegrower, and any on-sale licensee to permit consumers to leave the premises with open containers of alcoholic beverages for consumption off the premises within an entertainment zone, subject to certain conditions.
• Gender-Neutral Toy Section – AB 1084 makes it so department stores with 500 employees are required to have a gender-neutral section of toys.
• Hotel and AirBNB cancellations – SB 644 ensures Consumers would be able to make cancellations with a full refund, at no charge, up to 24 hours after they make a booking with hotels, short-term rentals and third-party booking services
• Japanese shochu – AB 416 allows for any on-sale licensee authorized to sell wine may also sell shochu, an imported Japanese alcoholic beverage that contains not more than 24% of alcohol by volume and is derived from agricultural products.
• Junk Fees – SB 478 outlaws hidden charges on purchases
• Right to Repair – SB 244 aims to make it easier and cheaper to repair items – such as cell phones, televisions and other home appliances. Requires manufactures to provider consumers and repair shops with tools and other documents needed to repair devices. Goes into effect in July.
• Recycling –  SB 353 adds large juice containers to state recycling program; Improves processing payments and supports expansion of recycling opportunities
• Small off-road engines – Under AB 1346, it basically new gasoline-powered leaf blowers, lawnmowers, chainsaws, generators and other small off-road engines beginning Jan. 1, 2024.
• Tax the Rich – Under SB 951, increases the top income tax rate for millionaires from 13.3% to 14.4% beginning January 1. Also increases taxes from 9.3% to 10.4% the tax paid by incomes between $61,214 and $312,686 — the middle class
• Water Shutoff Protections – SB 3 further expands water shutoff protections

Education

• Cost for Courses – AB 607 commencing July 1, 2024, require each campus of the California Community Colleges and the California State University, and request each campus of the University of California, to prominently display the estimated costs for each course of all required course materials and fees directly related to those materials, for no less than an annually increasing percentage, up to 75% by January 1, 2028, of the total number of courses on the online campus course schedule for which a faculty member or course instructor has been assigned.
• Sexual Assault Victims – AB 1138 requires colleges to assist a student who seeks support after experiencing sexual violence receives information about the student’s options and rights to obtain a sexual assault forensic medical examination. Also provide to their students without charge and in a manner that protects student confidentiality, transportation to and from a local Sexual Assault Forensic Examination (SAFE) or Sexual Abuse Response Team (SART) exam center for a qualified health care provider to administer the sexual assault forensic medical evidence kit.
• Sexual Harassment – SB 808 requires the California State University, on or before December 1 of each year, to submit a report to the Legislature on the investigations and outcomes of sexual harassment reports and formal sexual harassment complaints
• Willful Defiance – SB 274 takes effect July 1, 2024. SB 274 builds on Sen. Skinner’s 2019 legislation, SB 419, which was signed into law by Gov. Newsom. It permanently banned willful defiance suspensions in grades TK-5 and prohibited them in grades 6-8 until 2025. Under SB 274, willful defiance suspensions are barred in grades 6 to 12, with a sunset of July 1, 2029, in all California public schools. In addition, under SB 274, teachers would be able to remove a student from a specific class for unruly behavior, but the youth would not be suspended from school. Instead, it would be up to school administrators to determine appropriate and timely in-school interventions or support for the student.

Election Law

• Double Voting – AB 1539 makes it a misdemeanor for any person to vote or to attempt to vote both in an election held in this state and in an election held in another state on the same date. The bill would not prohibit a voter from voting in an election held in this state and in another state if one of the elections is an election held in a landowner voting district or any other district for which an elector is not required to be a resident of the district. By creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
• Terminology: AB 421 aims to clarify language on ballot measures to make it less confusing to voters. Also requires a ballots top funders to be listed.

Employment / Work Place

• Cannabis – AB 2188 makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a person in hiring, termination, or any term or condition of employment, or otherwise penalize a person, if the discrimination is based upon the person’s use of cannabis off the job and away from the workplace
• Cannabis – SB 700 make it unlawful for an employer to request information from an applicant for employment relating to the applicant’s prior use of cannabis
• City Councilmember Pay – SB 329 increases the maximum salaries of most city council members.
• Employee Conduct – SB 497 protects workers from retaliation who openly complain about their wage.
• Fast Food Workers Minimum Wage – Under AB 1228, beginning in April next year, California’s minimum wage for the state’s 500,000 fast-food workers will increase to $20 per
• H-2A information – AB 635 requires an employeer to give written notice of federal H-2A visa in English or Spanish.
• Healthcare Worker Minimum Wage Increase: Under SB 525, minimum wage will increase for health care works to $23 per hour. The bill goes into effect June 1.
• Human Trafficking – AB 1740 requires child care facilities or other businesses to post information about human trafficking and slavery.
• Laid off Workers – AB 723 redefines “laid-off employee” to mean any employee who was employed by the employer for 6 months or more and whose most recent separation from active employment by the employer occurred on or after March 4, 2020, and was due to a reason related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including a public health directive, government shutdown order, lack of business, reduction in force, or other economic nondisciplinary reason due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill would create a presumption that a separation due to a lack of business, reduction in force, or other economic, nondisciplinary reason is due to a reason related to the COVID-19 pandemic, unless the employer establishes otherwise by a preponderance of the evidence.
• Minimum Wage Increase – beginning Jan 1, California minimum wage will increase from $15.50 to $16 per hour.
• MMA Retirement Fund – AB 1136 establishes a fund for mix-martial arts retirement benefits for fighters who fought at least 39 rounds—retirement benefits begin at age 50.
• Non-Compete Contracts – SB 699 makes non-compete contracts in California unenforceable
• Paid Sick Leave – Under SB 616, The bill will require an employee to have no less than 40 hours or five days of accrued sick leave or paid time off by the 200th calendar day of employment, or in each 12-month period
• Reproductive Leave – Under SB 848, requires employers to offer reproductive leave. Allows for the leave to occur within 3-months of an event and will use other leave balance otherwise available to an employee.
• Single Use-Restrooms – AB 783 will require businesses to put signage on single-user restrooms to indicates the toilet facility is available to all genders — note this will occur through the permitting or renewal process of business licenses.
• Work from Home – SB 731 requires 30-day advance written notice before requiring remote employees to return to an in-person setting. The bill does allow for an employee to remain remote as an accommodation, if applicable, to their disabilities.
• Workplace Violence – SB 553 requires an employer, as specified, to also establish, implement, and maintain, at all times in all work areas, an effective workplace violence prevention plan containing specified information. The bill would require the employer to record information in a violent incident log for every workplace violence incident, as specified. The bill would require the employer to provide effective training to employees on the workplace violence prevention plan, among other things, and provide additional training when a new or previously unrecognized workplace violence hazard has been identified and when changes are made to the plan. The bill would require records of workplace violence hazard identification, evaluation, and correction and training records to be created and maintained, and violent incident logs and workplace incident investigation records to be maintained (July 1, 2024)

Healthcare

• Abortion – AB 385 allows physicians assistants to perform surgical abortions without direction supervision of a doctor.
• Abortion (non-California) – SB 345 provides legal protections for California health care practitioners that provide or dispense medication or other services for abortion, contraception or gender-affirming care, regardless of their patient’s geographic location.
• Mental Health Hold – SB 43 expands the definition of “gravely disabled” to also include a condition in which a person, as a result of a severe substance use disorder, or a co-occurring mental health disorder and a severe substance use disorder, is, in addition to the basic personal needs described above, unable to provide for their personal safety or necessary medical care.
• Pretrial diversion – AB 1412 removes borderline personality disorder as an exclusion for pretrial diversion.
• Opioid Treatment – AB 663 allows for pharmacies to create mobile access to medicine

Housing

• Credit History – SB 267 prohibits use of persons credit history as part of the rental application process.
• LGBTQ Foster Kids – AB 407 requires a resource family to demonstrate an ability and willingness to meet the needs of a child, regardless of the child’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, as specified.
  
• No Fault Cause Evictions – SB 567 makes it harder for a landlord to evict a tenant. If owner or family move-in to a property, they must do so within 90 days and live there for at least 12-months.
• Nuisance Ordinances – AB 1418 prohibits a local government from imposing a penalty against a resident, owner, tenant, landlord, or other person as a consequence of contact with a law enforcement agency. The bill also prohibits a local government from requiring or encouraging a landlord to evict or penalize a tenant because of the tenant’s association with another tenant or household member who has had contact with a law enforcement agency or has a criminal conviction or to perform a criminal background check of a tenant or a prospective tenant.
• Rent Control – AB 1620 requires tenants in rent-controlled units who have permanent disabilities related to mobility be allowed to relocate to an available and accessible unit at the same rental rate and terms. Applies to properties with five or more rental units.
• Scooter Parking – SB 712 prohibits a landlord from prohibiting a tenant from owning personal micromobility devices or from storing and recharging up to one personal micromobility device in their dwelling unit for each person occupying the unit, subject to certain conditions and exceptions.
• Security Deposit – AB 12 caps security deposits at one month rent.
• Yes inn God’s Backyard (YIMBY) – SB 4 allows for churches, religious organizations and non-profit colleges to build affordable housing on their land. It removes regulations to make it easier.

Immigration

• SB 831 – This bill would authorize the Governor to enter into an agreement with the United States Attorney General to establish a program for the United States Attorney General to grant an agricultural employee, as defined, parole pursuant to the above-described authorization under the act, as specified. Subject to implementation of that program, the bill would require the Governor to prepare a report on the impact of the program on the 3rd year of the renewal of the program

Public Safety

• Ammunition & Firearm Tax – AB 28 imposes 11% tax on sale of firearms and ammunition. Law goes into effect on July 1, 2024.
• Automated Tickets – AB 645 is a pilot program until January 1, 2032, the Cities of Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland, Glendale, and Long Beach, and the City and County of San Francisco to establish a Speed Safety System Pilot Program if the system meets specified requirements.
• Blockchain – AB 76 expand money laundering to include conducting a transaction involving a monetary instrument of specified value using blockchain technology
• Catalytic Converter Thefts – SB 55 prohibits a dealer or retailer from selling a new or used motor vehicle equipped with a catalytic converter unless the catalytic converter has been permanently marked, as defined, with the vehicle identification number of the vehicle to which it is attached.
  
• Catalytic Converter Thefts – AB 1519 prohibits any person, except as exempted, from removing, altering, or obfuscating the vehicle identification number that has been added to a catalytic converter, or from knowingly possessing 3 or more catalytic converters that have been so altered.
  
• Catalytic Converter Possession – AB 641 makes it a misdemeanor for a dismantler to have in their possession 9 or more used catalytic converters.
  
• Concealed Carry – SB 2 provides a whole new set of requirements and limits where one can carry (Note – this law is currently on hold due to a judges decision)
  
• Child Sex Trafficking – SB 14 include human trafficking of a minor within the definition of a serious felony
  
• Ebony Alerts – SB 673 creates an emergency alert called “Ebony Alert” to help locate missing black women and youth.
• Exited Delirium – AB 360 prohibit “excited delirium,” as defined, from being recognized as a valid medical diagnosis or cause of death in this state
• Fentanyl – AB 701 increases jail time for those trafficking more than a kilo of fentanyl. Under the bill, fentanyl is added to the substances for which additional terms or fines can be imposed and would require a defendant who violates those laws with respect to a substance containing heroin, fentanyl, or cocaine, as specified, to know of the substance’s nature or character as a controlled substance to be subjected to an additional term and authorized fine.
• Hate crimes: nooses, crosses, and swastikas – AB 2282 increases penalties these offenses to include hanging a noose, placing or displaying a sign, mark, symbol, emblem, or other physical impression, including, but not limited to, a Nazi swastika, and burning, desecrating, or destroying a religious symbol, such as a cross, at schools and public places, generally, as specified, for the purpose of terrorizing a person, as specified. The bill would, for the first conviction, punish a person who hangs a noose, places or displays certain symbols, or burns or desecrates a religious symbol, as specified, with imprisonment for 16 months or 2 or 3 years, by a fine of not more than $10,000, or both the fine and imprisonment, or by imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed one year, by a fine not to exceed $5,000, or by both the fine and imprisonment. For a 2nd or subsequent conviction under these provisions, the bill would punish a person with imprisonment for 16 months or 2 or 3 years, by a fine of not more than $15,000, or by both the fine and imprisonment, or by imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed one year, by a fine not to exceed $10,000, or by both the fine and imprisonment.
• Human Trafficking – SB 727 authorizes the plaintiff to seek from the court a finding that specific debts attributed to the plaintiff were incurred as a result of trafficking and without the consent of the plaintiff. The bill would authorize the court to base its finding upon evidence that a debt attributed to the plaintiff was incurred as the result of any illegal act in which the plaintiff was the victim. The bill would provide that the finding would not affect the priority of any lien or other security interest.
• Sex Abuse Victims – AB 452 eliminate time limits for the commencement of actions for the recovery of damages suffered as a result of childhood sexual assault, as specified. The bill would eliminate the prohibition on certain actions proceeding on or after the plaintiff’s 40th birthday
• Traffic Stops – AB 2773 requires police agencies to track whether officers who stop drivers are complying with the law by telling drivers why they’ve stopped them before questions can be answered.

Note – not included in 2024 list count, but will go into effect in 2028

• Firearms – SB 452 This bill would remove from the definition of an unsafe handgun a semiautomatic pistol without a microstamping component, as specified, and would prohibit, commencing on January 1, 2028, a licensed firearms dealer from selling, offering for sale, exchanging, giving, transferring, or delivering a semiautomatic pistol, as defined, unless the pistol has been verified as a microstamping-enabled pistol, if the department has determined that microstamping components or microstamping-enabled semi-automatic firearms are available, as specified. The bill would also prohibit a person from modifying a microstamping-enabled pistol or microstamping component with the intent to prevent the production of a microstamp. By creating new crimes, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

Social Media/Internet

• California Delete Act – SB 362require a data broker to register with, pay a registration fee to, and provide information to, the agency instead of the Attorney General and would require the agency to maintain the informational internet website. Then by 2026, create a delete mechanism for data at the request of the consumer.
• Hate Speech – AB 587 requires social media companies to report hate speech, racism, extremism or radicalization, disinformation or misinformation among other things, posted on their sites, to the Attorney General.
• Hate Speech/Misinformation – SB 587 requires social media companies to share policies on how they handle hate speech and misinformation.
• Proposition 24 – approved in 2020 it now goes into effect that established standards for collection and use of personal data and allows consumers to prevent businesses from selling or sharing personal or sensitive data.
• Sales – SB 60 authorizes a person to seek an order requiring a social media platform to remove content that includes an offer to transport, import into this state, sell, furnish, administer, or give away a controlled substance in violation of specified law

Transportation

• Bicycle – AB 1909 allows bicyclists to cross a street when a pedestrian signal is activated vs a green light
• Cruising – AB 436 remove the authorization for a local authority to adopt rules and regulations by ordinance or regulation regarding cruising.
• Daylighting – AB 413 prohibit the stopping, standing, or parking of a vehicle within 20 feet of the vehicle approach side of any unmarked or marked crosswalk or 15 feet of any crosswalk where a curb extension is present

Add a bill?

While this is just a sampling of some of the bills, do you feel a bill should be included in this list, please email [email protected] to be potentially added to the list.