Dive Brief:

• California's legislature recently sent three employment bills to the state's governor for consideration. The first would require that small businesses (defined as those with 20 to 49 employees) allow workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a new baby, reports the Los Angeles Times.
• A second bill would prohibit employers from allowing federal immigration agents on their property without a judicial warrant, the Times noted in a separate story. That bill also would require business owners to inform employees that agents are inspecting records.
• Finally, a third bill would require companies with at least 500 employees to make information about the differences between the wages of male and female exempt employees public, according to law firm Seyfarth Shaw.

Dive Insight:

California often leads the nation in advancing new legislation, but with the Trump administration rolling back more mandates (the overtime rules and EEO-1 pay reporting requirements, for example), other states are getting in on the action.

But as states and cities across the country adopt paid leave, salary history bans and more, employers operating in multiple jurisdictions report that it's increasingly difficult to comply with this patchwork of legislation.

Employers could soon have a reprieve in one area, however; business groups and federal lawmakers are working to introduce federal legislation that would allow businesses to offer a flexible work arrangement to all employees, in lieu of complying with various state and local leave and flexibility laws.