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California's 2025 Expansion of Employee Leave Rights: What Employers Need to Know

"California has once again expanded employee leave protections and benefits ... through  ... Assembly Bill 406 and Senate Bill 590. Together, these new laws broaden employee rights to protected time off, create new obligations for employers, and increase the administrative burden of tracking, approving, and documenting leaves of absence. Employers should carefully review and update their leave policies, manager training, and HR practices to ensure full compliance."

New California Law Mandates That Employees Can No Longer Be Required to Use Vacation Before Receiving Paid Family Leave Benefits

"[T]he Unemployment Insurance Code ... previously allowed employers to require employees to exhaust up to two weeks of accrued but unused vacation leave as a condition of an employee's initial receipt of these benefits. For any period of disability commencing on or after January 1, 2025, an employer can no longer impose such a condition.... [E]mployers can instead encourage employees to use accrued vacation to 'top off' their PFL benefits by paying an additional amount from accrued vacation to cover the difference between PFL and the regular wages or vacation that the employee might otherwise receive."