SB 1284: Employers: annual report: pay data.

Existing law establishes the Department of Industrial Relations in the Labor and Workforce Development Agency to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of California, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment. Existing law establishes within the department the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, which is vested with the general duty of enforcing various labor laws. Existing law creates the Labor Enforcement and Compliance Fund, moneys in which, upon appropriation by the Legislature, are available to support the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, including, among other things, enforcement of laws prohibiting wage differentials.

This bill would require, on or before September 30, 2019, and on or before September 30 each year thereafter, a private employer that has 100 or more employees and who is required to file an annual Employer Information Report under federal law, to submit a pay data report to the Department of Industrial Relations Fair Employment and Housing that contains specified wage information. This bill would require the department to make the reports available to the Department of Fair Employment and Housing upon request. This The bill would impose specified civil penalties on any employer who does not comply with the reporting requirement, and would require any penalties collected to be deposited into the Labor Enforcement and Compliance Fund, to be allocated upon appropriation by the Legislature to the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement to enforce wage differential laws. This The bill would authorize the Labor Commissioner to issue a citation to an employer for a violation of these provisions. This the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, if the department does not receive the required report from an employer, to seek an order requiring the employer to comply, as specified. The bill would require the department to maintain the pay data reports for a minimum of 10 years and make it unlawful for any officer or employee of the department or the Department of Fair Employment and Housing to make public in any manner whatever any individually identifiable information obtained from this report, as specified.

The California Public Records Act requires a public agency to make public records available for inspection, unless an exemption from disclosure applies.

This bill would provide that any information disclosed to the department pursuant to this bill be considered confidential information and not subject to disclosure pursuant to the California Public Records Act, except as specified.

Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.

This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.