(April 3, 2024) The California Chamber of Commerce today released its initial 2024 job killer list which, to date, includes nine bills dealing with labor and employment, taxation, unemployment insurance, environmental and health care issues. CalChamber expects several additions to the list in the coming weeks.

“These proposals would add significant costs and burdens to California’s small businesses, creating an even more challenging business climate in our state,” said CalChamber President and CEO Jennifer Barrera. “Lawmakers should carefully weigh the consequences these bills would have on California employers and businesses in their local communities. We are grateful that the Governor and Legislative leadership have indicated that new taxes are off the table this year. This is particularly significant because two bills on this year’s job killer list propose tax increases to fund UI benefit hikes.”

The 2024 CalChamber Job Killer List includes the following bills:

Unemployment Insurance/New Taxes

SB 1434 (Durazo; D-Los Angeles) Huge Increases to Unemployment Insurance Taxes. Increases UI taxes to fund UI benefit hikes of up to 55%, as well as providing for subsequent increases based on inflation. Also creates entirely new UI program to provide benefits to workers who do not qualify for traditional UI, to be funded by a new tax on California employers.

SB 1116 (Portantino; D-Burbank) Increased Unemployment Insurance Taxes to Subsidize Striking Workers. SB 1116 will allow striking workers to claim UI benefits when they choose to strike. Because the UI Fund is paid for entirely by employers, SB 1116 will effectively add more debt onto California employers. Moreover, SB 1116 will effectively force employers to subsidize strikes at completely unrelated businesses because the UI Fund’s debt adds taxes for all employers, regardless of whether they’ve had a strike.

Labor and Employment

SB 1345 (Smallwood-Cuevas; D-Los Angeles) Prohibits Consideration of Conviction History in Employment. Effectively prohibits most employers from considering conviction history of an applicant, existing employee, or contractor in employment or contracting decisions.

AB 2374 (Haney; D-San Francisco) Joint Liability for Businesses of All Sizes. Imposes new statutory joint liability on business of any size that contracts for janitorial services if a contractor violates the Displaced Janitor Opportunity Act and places new mandates on those businesses that should be assigned to the contractor.

AB 2499 (Schiavo; D-Chatsworth) Leave Expansion. Significantly expands uncapped leave related to crimes and lowers threshold of applicability to employers with just five employees.

AB 2751 (Haney; D-San Francisco) Prohibition on Employee Communications During Certain Hours. Prohibits any employee working for an employer of any size from contacting another employee outside of their normal work hours except in very narrow circumstances and would subject employer to costly litigation for any dispute as to whether the communication was permissible.

Consumer Products

SB 903 (Skinner; D-Berkeley) Bans All Uses of PFAS. Prohibits the use of PFAS in all commercial and consumer products by 2030 unless DTSC is petitioned and makes an affirmative determination that the FAS in a particular product is an unavoidable use. Because of the breadth and scope of PFAS use, including in aerospace, lithium ion batteries, medical devices, automotive and semiconductors, to name a few, the regulatory program established is unworkable and ultimately will lead to a ban on critically important products or otherwise make certain products less safe.

Environmental

ACA 16 (Bryan; D-Los Angeles) Environmental Rights. Has far-reaching negative consequences that would impair government operations, stunt development for new housing, infrastructure and clean energy project development and has strong potential to destabilize California’s economy.

Health Care

AB 2200 (Kalra; D-San Jose) Government-Run Health Care. Forces all Californians into a new untested state government health plan, with no ability to opt out while eliminating Medicare for California seniors and increasing taxes at least $250 billion a year on workers, income, jobs, goods and services.

For more information on the 2024 Job Killer list, visit https://advocacy.calchamber.com/policy/bill-tracking/2024-job-killers/.