The new California laws taking effect across 2024, 2025, and 2026 touch nearly every part of daily life: a statewide minimum wage of $16.90 an hour, a voter-approved rewrite of theft and drug sentencing under Proposition 36, a one-month cap on security deposits, a single-request system for wiping your data from every registered data broker, and new rules on cruising, crosswalk parking, and speed cameras. Most changes kicked in on January 1 of their effective year. The sections below walk through what actually changes for you.
What You Earn
California’s general minimum wage rose to $16.90 per hour on January 1, 2026, and it applies to every employer regardless of size. The rate now adjusts each January based on inflation, so it moves without any new legislation.1Department of Industrial Relations. Minimum Wage
Two industries have their own floors. Fast-food workers at chains with 60 or more locations nationwide earn at least $20 per hour under AB 1228, which took effect April 1, 2024. The same law set up a Fast Food Council that can raise the rate annually, capped at the lesser of 3.5% or the year’s CPI increase, with the council’s authority sunsetting January 1, 2029.2Department of Industrial Relations. Fast Food Minimum Wage Frequently Asked Questions3Office of Governor Gavin Newsom. California Increases Minimum Wage, Protections for Fast-Food Workers
Healthcare workers are on a multi-year schedule under SB 525 that varies by facility type. The largest hospitals and integrated health systems (10,000 or more full-time employees) pay $24 per hour from July 2025 through June 2026 and step up to $25 on July 1, 2026. Smaller clinics and rural facilities move slower, with some at $21 through June 2026 before rising to $23. SB 159 lets covered employers apply for a one-year pause if compliance would seriously harm operations.4Department of Industrial Relations. Health Care Worker Minimum Wage Frequently Asked Questions
At Work
Since January 1, 2024, SB 616 has required most employers to give five days (40 hours) of paid sick leave per year, up from three days. You accrue one hour for every 30 hours worked, or the employer can front-load the full 40 hours at the start of the year. Employers don’t have to let your total accrued sick leave exceed 80 hours.5Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave – Frequently Asked Questions6California Legislative Information. SB-616 Sick Days – Paid Sick Days Accrual and Use
Non-compete agreements are now dead on arrival in California. SB 699 voids any non-compete regardless of where it was signed or where the work happened.7California Legislative Information. California Code 16600.5 – Contracts in Restraint of Trade AB 1076 required employers to send a written, individualized notice by February 14, 2024, to every current employee and every former employee hired after January 1, 2022, telling them any non-compete clause in their contract is void. The notice had to reach both the last known mailing address and email address, and employers that skipped it risk unfair-competition liability.8California Legislative Information. AB-1076 Restrictive Covenants – Contracts in Restraint of Trade
SB 553 has required nearly every California employer since July 1, 2024, to maintain a written workplace violence prevention plan covering hazard identification, retaliation-free reporting, and annual training. Employers must also keep a violent incident log available to Cal/OSHA inspectors.9California Legislative Information. SB-553 Occupational Safety – Workplace Violence – Restraining Orders and Workplace Violence Prevention Plan
On January 1, 2026, AB 692 voided most “stay-or-pay” agreements, the deals that make workers repay training, relocation, or similar costs if they leave before a set period. Three other worker protections started the same day: AB 1340 gives rideshare drivers the right to unionize and bargain collectively, SB 648 lets the Labor Commissioner investigate and fine employers who unlawfully withhold gratuities, and SB 261 authorizes penalties of up to three times the amount owed when an employer ignores an unpaid wage judgment for more than 180 days.10California Labor and Workforce Development Agency. New Worker Protections Taking Effect in California on January 1, 2026
If You Rent or Own a Home
AB 12 capped security deposits at one month’s rent for most rentals, furnished or not. The old limits were two months for unfurnished units and three for furnished. A narrow exception lets a landlord charge up to two months when the landlord is a natural person (or an LLC of natural persons), owns no more than two rental properties totaling no more than four units, and the tenant is not a service member.11California Legislative Information. AB-12 Tenancy – Security Deposits
SB 567 tightened the Tenant Protection Act’s no-fault eviction rules. If a landlord evicts you so they or a qualifying family member can move in, that person has to actually move in within 90 days and stay for at least 12 consecutive months as their primary residence. For a substantial remodel eviction, the landlord must give you written notice describing the planned work, the timeline, and copies of the required permits.12California Legislative Information. California Civil Code 1946.2 – Termination of Tenancy – No-Fault Just Causes
AB 1033 lets local governments pass ordinances allowing homeowners to sell an Accessory Dwelling Unit as a separate condominium, with a condominium structure and shared-space management. Whether you can do this depends on whether your city or county has adopted such an ordinance.13California Legislative Information. AB-1033 Accessory Dwelling Units – Local Ordinances – Separate Sale or Conveyance
Starting January 1, 2026, AB 628 requires landlords to provide a working refrigerator in every rental unit. It becomes part of the same habitability baseline that already covers heating, plumbing, and electrical systems.14Office of Governor Gavin Newsom. New in 2026 – California Laws Taking Effect in the New Year
Your Data, Your Devices, Your Money
The Right to Repair Act (SB 244) requires manufacturers of electronics and appliances to make parts, tools, and repair documentation available to owners and independent repair shops. For products with a wholesale price of $50 or more, resources must be available for at least three years after the last date that model was manufactured. For products at $100 or more wholesale, the window is seven years. The law covers phones, laptops, and household appliances, and it applies whether or not the product is still under warranty.15Department of Consumer Affairs. Bureau of Household Goods and Services – Right to Repair Act Industry Advisory16California Legislative Information. SB-244 Right to Repair Act
The Delete Act (SB 362) created a way for Californians to erase their personal data from every registered data broker through one request. The California Privacy Protection Agency built the Delete Request and Opt-out Platform, known as DROP, to run the system. DROP is now available for submitting deletion requests, and starting August 1, 2026, data brokers must process those requests every 45 days. Before DROP, you had to contact each broker one by one.17California Privacy Protection Agency. Data Brokers
SB 478 bans advertising a price that leaves out mandatory fees. A hotel room listed at $200 with a $30 resort fee has to be advertised at $230, and the rule reaches online tickets, restaurant service charges, and similar transactions. Only government taxes and shipping can be excluded from the sticker price.18State of California Department of Justice Office of the Attorney General. SB 478 – Hidden Fees
SB 942 requires providers of generative AI systems to offer tools that detect content their systems created, and AI-generated images and video must carry both visible and imperceptible markings identifying them as machine-made. Two related laws address digital replicas of people: AB 1836 prohibits using a digital replica of a deceased person’s voice or likeness in audiovisual works without consent, and AB 2602 voids contract provisions permitting a digital replica of a performer unless the agreement specifically describes the intended uses and the performer had legal representation.
Criminal Law and Public Safety
Voters approved Proposition 36 in November 2024, walking back parts of Proposition 47. The core changes:
- Shoplifting and petty theft can be charged as felonies, with sentences up to three years, if the person has two or more prior convictions for certain theft crimes.
- Felony theft sentences can be extended by up to three years when three or more people committed the crime together.
- Selling fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, or methamphetamine generally requires prison time rather than county jail.
- Possessing those same drugs with two or more prior drug convictions can be charged as a “treatment-mandated felony.” Complete court-ordered treatment and the charges are dismissed; refuse or fail, and you can face up to three years in prison.
- Courts must warn anyone convicted of selling or providing fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, or meth that they could face murder charges if someone dies from drugs they supplied.
AB 701 added fentanyl to the list of controlled substances that trigger weight-based sentence enhancements for trafficking, ranging from three additional years for over one kilogram up to 25 additional years for over 80 kilograms. The enhancements apply only when the person knew they were dealing with a controlled substance.20California Legislative Information. AB-701 Controlled Substances – Fentanyl
AB 2943, effective in 2025, lets prosecutors add up property stolen from different victims or in different counties to reach the $950 felony grand theft threshold, so long as the thefts were part of a common scheme. A person who took $400 from one store and $600 from another can now face a single grand theft charge rather than two separate petty thefts.21Office of Governor Gavin Newsom. New in 2025 – Cracking Down on Retail Theft and Property Crime
If you carry a concealed firearm, the map of where you can and can’t carry is still moving. SB 2 tried to designate more than two dozen “sensitive places” as off-limits to permit holders. In September 2024, the Ninth Circuit partly upheld a preliminary injunction against several of those categories. Under that ruling, permit holders can carry in hospitals, places of worship, public transit, and financial institutions. Carrying stays prohibited at bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, playgrounds, parks, casinos, stadiums, libraries, zoos, and museums. The case has not been decided on the merits, so the boundary could shift again.9California Legislative Information. SB-553 Occupational Safety – Workplace Violence – Restraining Orders and Workplace Violence Prevention Plan
On the Road
AB 413 bans parking within 20 feet of the approach side of any crosswalk, marked or unmarked. Where a curb extension is already in place, the buffer is 15 feet.22California Legislative Information. California Vehicle Code – Vehicles – Stopping, Standing, and Parking
AB 436 repealed local authority to ban cruising and struck the Vehicle Code provision that made it illegal to operate a passenger vehicle modified so any portion other than the wheels sits lower than the wheel rims. Lowriders can now cruise city streets without a ticket or impound based on the car’s look.23California Legislative Information. AB-436 Vehicles
AB 645 authorized a speed camera pilot in Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland, Glendale, Long Beach, and San Francisco, running until January 1, 2032. Cameras cite drivers going 11 or more miles per hour over the posted limit. Violations move through a civil administrative process, so they don’t add points to your driving record, and revenue goes to local traffic safety and pedestrian infrastructure.24California Legislative Information. AB-645 Vehicles – Speed Safety System Pilot Program
Several vehicle laws started January 1, 2026:
- AB 390 extends the Slow Down, Move Over requirement to any stationary vehicle displaying hazard lights or other warning devices, not just emergency vehicles.
- SB 720 lets local governments use automated cameras to enforce red light violations, with penalties as civil fines rather than criminal citations.
- AB 1085 makes manufacturing or selling a product designed to obscure a license plate an infraction carrying a $1,000 fine.
- AB 1087 raises probation for vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated from two years to between three and five years.
Starting October 1, 2026, the California CARS Act (SB 766) gives buyers a three-day right to cancel the purchase or lease of any vehicle priced under $50,000 and prohibits dealers from misrepresenting a vehicle’s total cost or financing terms.25California Department of Motor Vehicles. DMV Highlights New Laws in 2026
Health Costs
SB 40, effective January 1, 2026, caps insulin copays at $35 for a 30-day supply through large state-regulated health insurers. For many Californians, out-of-pocket insulin had been running several hundred dollars a month.14Office of Governor Gavin Newsom. New in 2026 – California Laws Taking Effect in the New Year