California has enacted Senate Bill 464, which strengthens and expands the state’s pay data reporting requirements for private employers. The law builds on existing obligations under which employers with 100 or more employees must annually report workforce demographic and pay data to the Civil Rights Department (CRD).
Currently, the report must include the number of employees by race, ethnicity, and sex across 10 job categories, along with pay band data, median and mean hourly rates, and total hours worked.
Under the new law, effective January 1, 2026, employers will be required to store demographic information collected for reporting purposes separately from personnel records. Additionally, courts will now be required, rather than authorized, to impose civil penalties on employers that fail to submit the required report when requested by the CRD.
Another major change is the expansion of job categories from 10 to 23, aligning the reporting structure with more detailed occupational classifications.
Specifically, beginning January 1, 2027, employers must report data across the following 23 job categories:
- Chief executives
- Management occupations, except chief executives
- Business and financial operations occupations
- Computer and mathematical occupations
- Architecture and engineering occupations
- Life, physical, and social science occupations
- Community and social service occupations
- Legal occupations
- Educational instruction and library occupations
- Art, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations
- Health care practitioners and technical occupations
- Health care support occupations
- Protective service occupations
- Food preparation and serving-related occupations
- Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations
- Personal care and service occupations
- Sales and related occupations
- Office and administrative support occupations
- Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations
- Construction and extraction occupations
- Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations
- Production occupations
- Transportation and material moving occupations
You can access more information here.