Women are the foundation of our families, our communities and the state of California. This year, the Legislature continued to make great strides on behalf of women and families. Here is a snapshot of several important recent policy achievements.
2017 Legislative Highlights for Women and Families
Fair Pay and Job Opportunity
AB 168 (Eggman): Prohibits employers from asking applicants about their salary history. Employers are also required to tell an applicant what the position’s pay scale is, in order to prevent salary discrimination.
AB 273 (Aguiar-Curry): Student parents who are taking English language, high school or high school equivalency courses are eligible for subsidized child care, allowing them to continue to work towards a profession that will better support them and their children.
Family Friendly Workplaces
SB 63 (Jackson): The New Parent Leave Act provides up 12 weeks of job-protected maternity and paternity leave to 2.7 million more parents in California, who work for smaller businesses with at least 20 employees.
Protecting Vulnerable Communities
SB 500 (Leyva): Allows law enforcement and prosecutors to pursue extortion charges on perpetrators who threaten to distribute private and sexually explicit images, often of teens and young women, if the victim does not comply with sex, additional sexually explicit images, or money.
AB 480 (Gonzalez Fletcher): Adds diaper costs of up to $30 a month to the list of supportive services available to CalWORKs recipients who participate in the Welfare to Work program.
AB 1312 (Gonzalez Fletcher): The Sexual Assault Survivors Bill of Rights ensures hospital and law enforcement personnel provide survivors of sexual assault with information on their rights and about resources available to them. Also requires police departments to test rape kits and to keep unprocessed rape kits for 20 years.
AB 1386 (Waldron): Promotes awareness of genetic counseling and screenings by requiring the California Department of Public Health to provide a written summary with information relating to breast cancer susceptibility gene (BRCA) mutations.
