It’s a fresh new year, and some posting and handout obligations are immediately upon us!

Know Your Rights Brochure

As we shared with you in our year-end briefing and prior blogs, the new Workplace Know Your Rights Act requires that California employers share a “Know Your Rights” notice with employees. More specifically:

• By February 1, 2026, employers must provide each current and (going-forward) new employee with a stand-alone copy of this notice. The notice must be provided “in a manner the employer normally uses to communicate employment-related information.” The notice could be, for example, personally delivered or emailed or texted to current employee. The notice also should be included in new hire/onboarding packets to be received upon hire.

• Thereafter, this written notice must be provided annually to employees.

• By March 30, 2026, employers must allow current employees to designate an emergency contact. Employees hired after March 30, 2026, must be given this opportunity at the time they are hired.

• Throughout their employment, employees must be allowed to provide updated emergency contact information.

• If an employee requests it, the employer must notify the employee’s designated emergency contact if the employee is arrested or detained at work

As they promised to do, the California Department of Industrial Relations has published a “Know Your Rights” template. Employers must provide the notice in the language the employer normally uses to communicate employment-related information to an employee and which the employee understands, if the template notice is available in that language on the labor commissioner’s website. Otherwise, the notice may be provided in English. English and Spanish notices are now available, and soon the DIR will provide a template notice in Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Punjabi, Tagalog, Urdu, and Vietnamese. Here is the English version and here is the Spanish version.

Updated Paid Sick Leave Posting is Available and Required

The Department of Labor Standards Enforcement has just issued a revised Healthy Workplaces/Healthy Families Act poster that reflects the recent changes and expansions to California’s paid sick leave laws. The poster informs on the basics of PSL and includes information on entitlement and usage. Employers must use this newest poster, which bears a January 2026 date. The poster is available online.

California Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Notification

Gentle reminder that this notice must be provided to employees in January (when you send W-2s) and again in March.

Please let us know if you have any questions; we are happy to help!

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