Name: jeff kuzmich - jeff kuzmich - Migrate_CA_Uncovering_Pay_Transparency_01212026_5178299
Uploaded: 2026-02-26T05:52:46.160Z
Duration: 18 min 53 s
Description: jeff kuzmich - jeff kuzmich - Migrate_CA_Uncovering_Pay_Transparency_01212026_5178299

Transcript for "jeff kuzmich - jeff kuzmich - Migrate_CA_Uncovering_Pay_Transparency_01212026_5178299": Hey, welcome all of you California people. My name is Gene Marks. I am the host of the Paychecks Thrive podcast, which I hope you're all listening to regularly. I am also a certified public accountant and a business owner outside of Philadelphia on the other side of the country. I also, write in a bunch of places, every week like the Guardian and the Hill and Forbes where I cover, business and small business issues that impact people all across the country, but I do overlap on regulatory issues as well. Issues that are likely impacting you in the state of California. This is a three part webinar series we are embarking on right now to bring you up to speed on the key regulations that are impacting your business as a business owner or a business person in the state of California. So I'm very, very happy that you are joining us. These three parts, this is part one where we are talking about paid transparency, a very important issue. They're all important. Part two, our second webinar, we are going to be discussing navigating salary and minimum wages. We'll be diving into not only minimum wages based on the rules which change depending on the industry and the business that you're in, but also overtime wages as well, which are different for California than they are, for a lot of other places in the country. Finally, there are new rules regarding, workplace rights for your employees and what types of documentation you should be keeping in your personnel files. You're going to want to know that as well. So that is what we are covering in each of these three webinars. They're each about fifteen to twenty minutes apiece. So hopefully they will give you the information that you need as quickly as possible so you can go back to work, but still make sure that you are in compliance. A few tech tips for these webinars as well. So first of all, this is not a phone connection. Your primary connection for audio is your computer. If you're not hearing me very well, it's probably because your speakers are turned down, so try and turn them up. If you want to refresh your browser or you're in Windows, hit the F5 key. If you're in a Macintosh, hit the command R key and that will refresh your browser. Also, if you'd like additional resources related to this webinar, PDFs and articles and stuff like that, go to the files and resources window that you're seeing in the console. There's also a questions option as well. You could submit your question under ask us a question. We will respond to all questions that are being answered. We're not going answer them exactly on this session, but we will get back to you with answers. So I want to make sure that you're out there hanging. Please submit us questions and we will absolutely get back to you with them. And as required by law, this is our legal disclaimer, which makes us all feel better that whatever we are saying, at least paychecks better, that this is not legal advice you're getting from paychecks. If there is anything particular to your business, please know you wanna be talking to your own legal experts and your advisers about that. This should be only considered to be general guidance at the most. Alright, I'm about to bring on Alex Popizis. Alex is an HR risk and response partner at Paychex. You'll see if you go to all these webinars, want to read his bio because it's important. He is a seasoned HR professional with over ten years of experience in employee relations, people management, and HR compliance. He doesn't live in California. He lives in San Antonio, Texas, but he knows everything there is to know about California law. He's SHRM certified. That's the Society of Human Resource Management. He leverages his extensive experience to assist California clients of Paychex across all industries with high risk employee relations situations and compliance issues. Before joining Paychex for four years, he worked across the country in various states where he supported retail companies with new store openings and employee relationship challenges. His diverse background has equipped him with a comprehensive understanding of complex workplace dynamics and state specific employment laws. So again, this is part one of our three part webinar series on California compliance change for 2026. This part will be covering Uncovering pay transparency. So without further ado, Alex, why don't we bring you in? Why don't you go through the agenda and let's talk a little bit about what we know about or should know about pay transparency in California. Awesome. Thanks, Jean, and thanks for the very nice intro. I know you mentioned that, you know, I don't live in California. Not anymore. I am San Diego, born and raised. I worked in California for many years. So, you know, San Diego not heart, but just, you know, currently in Texas. Either way Fair enough. Fair enough. And family is still in San Diego, I'm assuming? Yep. Everyone's back in Southern California. So you get back there frequently. Fair enough. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I'll be back there in a couple months. Good. Either way, let's go ahead and jump right into it today for the sake of time. Today's agenda, pretty straightforward. We're really gonna be going over what updates the state of California has in regards to pay transparency laws and regulations, how to communicate that with employees, and then we'll dive into why it's really important to make sure you're compliant and operating, ethically and properly when it comes to pay transparency, especially in the state of California. And then finally, as always, we wanna wrap up with what can we as Paychex and Paycor do to help you be compliant and successful as a company. So let's go ahead and jump right into it. So pay transparency in California. California, as we see many of the times, usually leads the way in the country out of all the states with the types of employment law legislation that they pass. So pay transparency in California has been a topic of much discussion over the last couple of decades, but it really ramped up in 2016. We had an equal pay, rights law that was passed. In 2021 is when things really began to open up to where we saw where employees had to request, what their pay range was and employers had to comply with that. And then we saw some additional variations to where now, prior to 2026, what we have in place is if an employee requests what their pay range is for their position, the employer has to provide that to them. If the employer is, interviewing and discussing a job with an applicant, The applicant has to be provided with a pay range if they request it as well. And then finally, all companies with 15 or more employees in the state of California, if you're posting a job online to the public, you're required to put a pay range on that job posting as well. So that's what we had going into 2026. 2026 is, shaken things up a little bit with this new update that we have to pay transparency laws in California. And here's why. Prior, you know, as I mentioned, if you wanted to post what the pay range was, we saw job postings online where a company would say, oh, the position's paid from $75,000 up to $300,000 a year. It was a really wide range. It wasn't really a proper estimate of what the role is going to be, when you're hired on. So what the new law does is it updates it to be an employer must provide a quote unquote good faith estimate for what the realistically expected wage range will be for the position when you start. So the posting you have online or the range you're providing to, people you're interviewing or your current employees has to be a quote unquote good faith estimate. And this includes the salary that you're paying. If there's additional bonus compensation or overtime expectations, you should include that in your range as well, amongst other things. So it's a big change that we see to the pay transparency law makes it more narrow, a little bit more specific. So you have to be able to comply with it a lot better. Alex, I have to ask you, this is, I mean, it is all about discrimination, isn't it? I mean, whenever I talk to business groups, pay transparency laws, we're not gonna see anything on federal level anytime soon, but we are seeing it in other states besides California. Employers, first of all, going back in the history, female employees and female workers have historically earned less than men. And when pay scales aren't made transparent, it puts them potentially behind the eight ball when they're coming on board. Other workers that might suffer from a disability or any other type of discriminatory thing that an employer could it levels the plank for employees. Do believe that this helps employers make sure that they are not even letting any of their biases get in the way. You know what I mean? Keeps them within that range. Does that mean that's the context behind this, right? Yeah, absolutely. That's the overall goal is to make sure that when you're paying people doing the same work in the same position, what are the objective or factual reasons as to why you're paying them different wage rates? And that kind of leads us into the next part of, you know, the webinar here and what we would discuss, which would be, you know, employers can have lawsuits brought against them for, wage disparities or for not following pay transparency laws in California. And this new law, what it did is it expanded the amount of time an employee can basically bring a suit or the statute of limitations against the, former or current employer. So it's now expanded to the statute of limitations three years. And then if that suit is filed, there's an additional six year look back period. So you can have someone working for you for years on the end. And if they were paid significantly less than someone else doing the same exact job and the same exact work, and you're not able to prove the reason as to why there's that pay discrepancy, you can be in a lot of hot water here, paying out some potential back pay or penalties or attorney's fees. So a lot of considerations there when it comes to that. Yeah, think it clarifies what the rules are as well. One other question I have for you when look at this slide, can you help me define what compensation means, Alex? Like, it just salary or does this do we have to disclose? Because there's all sorts of compensation, health benefits, retirement, contributions, that kind of stuff. Can you clarify that a little bit? Yeah, the law, the law got very specific here as well. So wages essentially could mean sure it's the, the salary that's paid, but what with that position are the vacation benefits? What are the bonus arrangements that you could be eligible for in that position? Is there stock options or profit sharing options or plans associated with it? Even things down to like travel reimbursement, could be included into that as well. So anything that's going to be some sort of a monetary benefit to the employee can be included into what that wage estimate would be. So the best practice for an employer is to make sure that we are including all of that when we advertise for a job. Correct? And this includes internal jobs as well or just external? Yeah. So if I'm, for example, if I'm in my current position with my company and I work in California, that employee can then request from their employer. Well, you know, I know you pay me, you know, say whatever number, say the employee's paid $75,000 a year. They can say, well, I know I'm paid $75,000 a year, but what's the wage range for the position that I'm currently in? And then the employer has to comply with that and say, okay, well, you know, you're paid this and the range of the position that you could be paid is this amount to this amount. And it has to be in good faith estimate range. The reason that this is important and we want to make sure that we have our facts lined up and our ducks in a row here as a company, or if you're an employer is, you know, we know employees talk and employees are protected and they're legally allowed to share compensation information that they make with other employees. And those other employees, if they elect to, can share that information with them. So Right. Employees talk about how much they're each making. If you have two employees doing a similar job, the same type of work in the same position, and they're making different amounts, you need to be prepared to explain why certain people are paid certain amounts. And this is where we kind of jump into what are the benefits of pay transparency here. What it allows you to do as a company is you're going to want to reassess why you pay people certain amounts of money and have that documented. So for example, if I have two people in the same job doing the same type of work and one's paid $15,000 less than the other employee, why is that? Oh, well, I can say this employee is paid more money because they have five more years of experience and they have an additional certification that makes them more valuable. Great. You have clear facts and evidence to show that, but we see a lot of the times where two people do the same work in the same position. They have pretty much identical resumes and there's a pay discrepancy there. Those are the situations that companies need to watch out for when they're doing these audits or these reviews, because that's where the money could be had if they get a lawsuit filed against them. So a lot of important stuff there. But, you know, kind of kind of wrap on this as far as benefits go, this pay transparency law, yes, it's something else that companies have to now comply with and make sure their wage rates are aligned. But the benefits of this are going to be both when it comes to interviewing applicants and with your internal employees for you as a company. And here's why. Prior, you would have people put no wage ranges or very vague wage ranges on job postings. You get 30 people applying for the job. Your HR department or recruiter is going through the process of talking with all these potential applicants. But then once compensation comes up, say you went through the interview process or whatever, you find out that you and the applicant are on very different areas of what you think the compensation should be for the position. And then nothing comes of it. What this allows you to do is the people applying for the jobs know what they're getting into with the wage range. And then you as an employer are only spending the time interviewing and speaking with and negotiating with good faith applicants who are serious about working for your company. So it's going to save you a lot of time. Good. One other thing I'll throw in here as well. For your existing employees. If they know that you as a company are operating ethically and providing clear pay ranges to them, it builds trust with them to start. But the other thing it does is if you have an employee who's say being paid in the middle of the wage range and they know they can increase more as they work with you, maybe that employee, looks to get additional certifications to make themselves more valuable with you. Maybe they want to map out a way to grow with you as a company long term to jump into a larger pay range. There's the different things that come of that. So while it does seem like an additional burden to have to comply with, there are a lot of benefits that can come of this as an employer. Jumping ahead, you know, that's pretty much the overall idea of what the updates are for pay transparency in California. So let's jump into what can Paychex and Paycor do to help you as a business succeed here. Number one, as you see on the screen there, access the compensation databases. We have some of the largest data sets in the industry when it comes to what people are paid in different positions and what localities they're located in. If you're working with us, you're working with some of your assigned HR partners. If you're on, services with us, we can pull compensation data for a specific industry you work in and the specific locality you work in. So you can see what the expected wages are for every single position exactly in your market. So you're going ensure you're paying in line with what the market is. Maybe you're beating the market. You can then have an idea of what your competitors are paying. It's going to assist you in the long run a lot. So that's the first thing we see. In addition to that, you see on here, you know, guidance from the HR partner, but then the assessment of your compensation practices. If you're going to go through and do an audit and you come back to us with information where you see pay discrepancies in your areas, we can chat through with you on what you can do to be compliant here, how you can look to rectify those situations. There's a lot of different things that we can support you with. So overall, you know, you're not going at this alone. Your HR partners and Paychex and Paycor as a whole can support you with this and provide you with all the information you need to be successful. So that's what I would say in regards to all of this. I'll go ahead and I'll, kick it back over to Gene to finish it off. All right, Alex. Thank you. That was great. And guys, just let me just please keep in mind when it comes to pay transparency. This is this is 2026 now, and this is what employers, good employers are expected to do. Just my personal opinion, people are always considered to be commodities of a business, and that's just not the case anymore. Your employees are super important. And as Alex pointed out, being compliant with this will help you with your recruiting and your retention as well. It will not only protect you against potential problems with discrimination or or things of that out, you know, that might be alleged. The more open and transparent you are with your employees, the better. And I think that the, the rules in California, my opinion, again, think are, you know, are one that are worth copying in States around the country, but we will see. There is a poll question that has popped up in front of you. Please take a minute out and respond to that poll question so that you can make sure that we are aware if you need any help. We can respond back to you and provide that help if so need be. So please take a minute out to read and respond to that question. And finally, just want to thank you. Again, this is the first part of a three part series, a webinar series that we are doing on new regulations in California. Alex has done a great job in summarizing up what you need to know from a pay transparency standpoint, but be aware on webinars two and three we're going to be digging into your minimum wage rules, to overtime rules, what records you should be keeping, what communications you need to be doing with your employees. All of these rules change in 2026 and if you're operating your business in California, you need to be aware of that. Again, if you need any more resources, PDFs or articles, please click on the files and resources area of your console. There is a survey that has popped up as well. We would appreciate if you answer that question, those questions so that we can make sure to provide you the best information possible. On behalf of Paychex and Alex, I want to thank you very much for attending this webinar. Hope you walked away with some good tips and information. My name is Gene Marks. We'll see you on our other webinars as well and maybe we'll see you on our Patriarch Thrive podcast too. Thanks for attending. We'll see you soon.