New hiring laws in California for 2027: what changes for recruiters and employers

As of October 2026, five California changes matter most for hiring in 2027. From January 1, 2027, businesses covered by the California Consumer Privacy Act must give job applicants a pre-use notice and an opt-out or human appeal when an automated tool makes or substantially makes a hiring decision. The stay-or-pay ban applies to offer and onboarding contracts signed on or after that date, AB 2495 widens the ban on immigration-related retaliation to cover applicants, pay data reports move to 23 job categories, and the minimum wage rises to $17.40 an hour with a $72,384 exempt salary floor. Earlier in 2026, a new pay scale definition, a know-your-rights notice at hire and new personnel record rules took effect.

This page lists only enacted laws and adopted rules with confirmed dates, each linked to the bill on the Legislature's site or the agency's own page. For the full, standing checklist of California hiring rules, see hiring employees in California; this page is the dated list of what is new.

Which California hiring laws take effect in 2026 and 2027?

What changed in the last 90 days?

Most of the 2027 changes were signed in the last week of September 2026, at the end of the session's bill-signing period. The hiring-relevant actions since August:

• August 13: the Department of Industrial Relations announced the 2027 minimum wage of $17.40 and the $72,384 exempt salary floor (release).
• September 27: SB 923 signed, widening the CCPA deletion right from January 1, 2027.
• September 29: AB 2495 signed, expanding Labor Code 1019 from January 1, 2027.
• September 30: AB 1697 signed as an urgency statute, delaying the stay-or-pay ban to 2027 contracts, and SB 1237 signed, raising pay data penalties. The Governor's September 30 legislative update lists both, and lists SB 1130 on wearable recording devices as vetoed.

What does the stay-or-pay ban mean for offers in 2027?

AB 692 was meant to apply to contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2026. AB 1697 replaced that date with January 1, 2027 and says liability does not accrue for acts between January 1, 2026 and its own effective date. From 2027, a contract term is unlawful if it makes a worker pay an employer, training provider or debt collector, or imposes "any penalty, fee, or cost," because the worker's employment ends. The statute defines "worker" to include a prospective employee, and its list of penalties includes replacement hire fees, quit fees and reimbursement for immigration or visa costs.

Exceptions include government loan repayment and grant-funded recruitment programs, tuition for a transferable credential on stated conditions, advanced paid time off, and sign-on or retention bonus agreements that meet conditions such as a separate agreement, time to consult a lawyer, prorated repayment and a limited retention period. If your offer letters or relocation and bonus templates carry repayment clauses, the 2027 version of each needs a review before the first January offer goes out.

What do California's 2027 AI rules require from recruiters?

Two sets of rules apply to AI used on candidates. The Civil Rights Council's automated-decision system regulations under the Fair Employment and Housing Act took effect on October 1, 2025 and apply to employers of five or more; they are covered in California AI hiring regulations. The new date is January 1, 2027, when the CPPA's automated decisionmaking technology rules require CCPA businesses to:

• give a pre-use notice at or before collecting the information the tool will process;
• offer an opt-out, unless an exception applies, such as a human appeal that can overturn the decision or a tool used only to assess ability to do the job that works for that purpose and does not discriminate;
• answer access requests about how the tool was used.

The details, including what counts as a tool that "substantially replaces" human decisions, are in CCPA ADMT rules for employers. A note taker that transcribes an interview for a person who then decides is a different thing from a tool that scores and rejects applicants; map which of your tools actually make or replace the decision.

What the 2026 AI and surveillance bills do not cover

• SB 947 (Ch. 859, Stats. 2026), operative July 1, 2027, regulates automated decision systems used on current employees, for example by barring sole reliance on one for a disciplinary or termination decision and requiring a written post-use notice. It defines an employee as "any person employed by an employer," so it does not reach applicant screening (SB 947).
• AB 1331 (Ch. 851) and AB 1883 (Ch. 853), Stats. 2026, effective January 1, 2027, limit workplace surveillance tools, including AI tools that infer emotional state or collect neural data. Both define the protected person as an employee, not an applicant (AB 1883).

What should staffing agencies change?

• Candidate contracts: agencies that charge placed workers for leaving early, or pass client "conversion" or replacement costs to the worker, should check those terms against the 2027 stay-or-pay rules, which name replacement hire fees and quit fees.
• Pay data: client employers with 100 or more workers hired through labor contractors file a separate labor contractor report, and agencies supply the data. Plan for the 23 categories in 2027 and keep demographic data apart from personnel files.
• Postings: a third party posting for an employer with 15 or more employees must include the pay scale, now defined as the range the employer reasonably expects to pay; see California pay transparency.
• I-9 and E-Verify conduct: AB 2495 covers "an employer or any other person," and its list of unfair practices includes asking for more or different documents than federal law requires and using E-Verify at a time or in a way federal law does not require; see E-Verify in California.

What to do before January 1, 2027

1. Update pay ranges and offers for the $17.40 minimum wage, any higher local rate, and the $72,384 exempt floor.
2. Rewrite repayment clauses in offer letters, relocation and bonus agreements for contracts signed from January 1, 2027.
3. Inventory AI hiring tools, decide for each whether it makes or substantially makes a hiring decision, and prepare the CPPA pre-use notice and opt-out or appeal path if you are a CCPA business.
4. Check the new-hire packet for the SB 294 rights notice and the emergency contact form.
5. Train hiring managers and onboarding staff on AB 2495: no extra documents, no immigration threats, E-Verify only as federal rules allow.
6. Prepare the May 2027 pay data report with the new categories, and confirm demographic data is stored separately.
7. Set up deletion handling for applicant requests that reach data bought from or pulled out of sourcing tools under SB 923.

For background check timing and the Fair Chance Act, which did not change in 2026, see California background check laws. For the other states with 2027 changes, see new hiring laws for 2027.