Do you need a California HR compliance checklist?

Every few weeks a business owner sends me a California HR compliance checklist they downloaded, filled out and filed away, usually two or three years ago. The checklist was fine when they found it. The problem is that California’s employer rules are not a list. They are a calendar, and a checklist you complete once starts going out of date the following January.

Do you need a California HR compliance checklist?

Yes, from your first employee. California applies some duties to every employer with one person on payroll, including minimum wage, paid sick leave, wage statements and, since the end of 2025, CalSavers, the state retirement program for employers with one or more employees that do not offer their own plan. A checklist keeps you from finding out about a duty from a claim. My California HR compliance checklist filters its 22 items by your headcount, so you only see what applies to you.

Why does a one-time checklist fail?

Two reasons. First, the rules change on a schedule: new state laws usually take effect January 1, the state minimum wage moves every January, and Bay Area cities adjust their own minimums, many of them every July. Second, your duties change as you grow. Harassment prevention training starts at 5 employees, pay ranges in job postings at 15, and pay data reporting at 100. California HR laws by headcount maps every threshold. A checklist that does not ask how many people you employ, and when it was last updated, is not telling you much.

What has to happen once a year?

• Give every employee California’s workplace rights notice by February 1. The requirement started in 2026, and the Labor Commissioner publishes the notice each year in English and 10 other languages.
• Update your required workplace posters when the state and your cities change them, usually in January and July.
• Adjust pay for the new state minimum wage, $17.40 an hour for 2027, and recheck exempt salaries against the new floor of $72,384 a year (DIR).
• Review your workplace violence prevention plan, which California requires for most employers and expects you to keep current.
• Track harassment prevention training, due every two years for supervisors and employees at businesses with 5 or more employees under Government Code 12950.1. Who needs it, and how long it runs.

What has to happen at every hire?

• Give the written wage notice Labor Code 2810.5 requires at hire, stating pay rate, payday, sick leave and the employer’s details.
• Complete the federal Form I-9 within three business days of the start date.
• Report the new hire to California’s Employment Development Department.
• Classify the role correctly, as exempt or nonexempt, and as employee or contractor under the ABC test.
• Hand over the handbook and policies, and get a signed acknowledgment.

What changed for 2026, and what is coming in 2027?

The February 1 workplace rights notice is the newest annual deadline, and CalSavers now reaches employers with a single employee. For 2027, the minimum wage and exempt salary floor rise again, and a set of new laws takes effect January 1; California’s 2027 employment laws covers what I am telling small employers to do now.

The practical setup is three tools, not one. Use the checklist to find your gaps today, the compliance calendar to get emailed before each deadline, and the handbook gap checker to make sure your written policies match. If you would rather have someone walk through all of it with you, that is exactly what my HR compliance check-up does.

McKinley holds a J.D. but is not a licensed attorney. Articles here are general information, not legal advice. For your specific situation, talk with an employment attorney.