Webinar Invitation: 2026 California Employment Law Update

We're offering this in-depth 2-hour webinar to catch you up on a wide range of important new legal developments for California employers. (This program will cover additional/updated content, and provide more written materials, than our November 13, 2025 one-hour webinar Changes California Employers Need to Make by January 1, 2026.)

We'll cover topics including:

• Updating Employee Handbooks: How employers need to update their employee handbooks to comply with changes effective in 2026, including with respect to leaves of absence policies; and, new laws in other states/cities affecting handbook policies for employers with employees working in any of those locations (including Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York City and State, Oregon, and Washington State).
• Updating Sign-On Bonus, Retention Bonus, and Other "Stay or Pay" Agreements: How a new California law requires employers to change or eliminate requirements for an employee to repay a monetary amount to an employer if they leave employment prior to a certain date. Registrants will receive a model form of agreement that may be used for sign-on bonuses, retention bonuses, and relocation payments. We'll also review a similar New York State law (recently signed by the governor) that generally prohibits stay or pay provisions as a condition of employment (e.g., in an employment offer letter).
• New Mandatory Notice Requirements: Requirement for California employers to provide a detailed written notice to employees of various legal rights by February 1, 2026. We expect the California Labor Commissioner to publish a notice template before the webinar date, and we'll plan to review the template in the webinar (and provide it to registrants as a handout).
• New Personnel File Requirements: How to comply with California's new law requiring that education and training records be included in employee personnel files. Registrants will receive a model template that they may use to document compliance with sexual harassment prevention training requirements, for inclusion in employee personnel files.
• New Pay Transparency Requirements: Revision of California's pay scale disclosure requirements, and new pay transparency requirements in other states. Registrants will receive a model pay scale based upon California law.
• Wage & Hour Law Update: Review of increased pay requirements for 2026, including with respect to traditional "white collar" and computer software professional exemptions from overtime; new developments related to the limited exclusion of overtime pay and tips from federal taxes; California Court of Appeal ruling in Contreras v. Green Thumb Produce, Inc. that an employee was a protected whistleblower when they complained about the fairness of their pay, even though they did not contend that differential pay was based upon protected class status.
• California WARN Act Update: Amendments to notice requirements for mass layoffs, facility closures, or relocations covered by Cal-WARN.
• Notable Jury Verdicts: Lessons that all employers can learn from a $103 million verdict in favor of a single employee of Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., who was terminated immediately following a medical leave, and who had raised concerns internally about alleged differential treatment of older employees; and, a $32.2 million verdict against Equinox in favor of a personal trainer who claimed disability discrimination, retaliation, failure to accommodate, and failure to engage in the interactive process.

Attendees will receive detailed PowerPoint slides and several additional written handouts. Time will also be reserved for answering attendee questions.

Your presenters will be attorneys Ray Hixson, Brian Nagatani, Alexa Morgan, and Jay Wang, who are partners of the law firm Hixson Nagatani LLP. Hixson Nagatani LLP advises and represents employers in a wide range of employment law matters. The firm provides advice and counsel on proactive steps that employers should take to ensure compliance and minimize legal risks, including with respect to creating and updating personnel policies and practices, personnel-related forms, risk assessment of contemplated personnel actions, and managers' legal training. The firm also defends employers against actual and threatened employee claims, including claims made in state and federal courts, arbitration, and government agencies.

Continuing education credits: This program has been submitted to the HR Certification Institute and SHRM for review. This program qualifies for 2.0 hours of MCLE for California attorneys.

Date & Time:

Date: Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. PST

Registration fee: Clients of Hixson Nagatani LLP may attend for no charge by entering the promo code: HNFIRMCLIENT. Client status will be verified before approving registrations. For non-clients, there is a $75 registration fee to be paid at the time of registration. No check payments accepted.