Stronger CA 2020 Agenda Update: Victories for 7 bills, 4 budget requests

July 13. 2020

With your support, 7 bills and 4 budget requests from the Stronger California Advocates Network 2020 Legislative Agenda are one step closer to becoming law.

If passed, these policies would help low-paid women workers and families across the state weather the pandemic and economic crisis by expanding paid sick leave and job protection; expanding child care options for essential workers; implementing critical health and safety protections for domestic workers; fighting garment workers’ wage theft; and much more.

These bills will face more votes in the next few months, and still need your support. See below for easy ways you can take action to support these bills, and join the Equal Rights Action Team to continue taking action on these and similar policies. (Continued below.)

These bills passed out of the Assembly and are now headed to the Senate:

• AB 3216 (Kalra & Gonzalez) – Directly responds to the COVID-19 crisis by providing emergency paid sick leave and family leave protections, as well as a right of recall and retention for workers who have been laid off in the 4 most heavily impacted industries.
  • Take action to support this bill
• AB 1947 (Kalra) – Ensures workers’ access to justice by giving them more time to file workplace retaliation complaints with the Labor Commissioner.
• AB 2999 (Low) – Provides workers with up to 10 days of unpaid, job-protected bereavement leave upon the death of a close family member. Under current law, workers could be fired for taking any time off under such circumstances.

These bills passed out of the Senate are now headed to the Assembly:

• SB 1257 (Durazo) – Eliminates the racist and sexist exclusion of domestic workers from California workplace health and safety laws.
  • Take action to support this bill
• SB 973 (Jackson) – Racial and gender wage gaps made visible with pay data collection (We can’t fix what we can’t see!).
  • Take action to support this bill
• SB 1399 (Durazo) – Protects garment workers’ from wage theft and ensures employers throughout the supply chain are held responsible for nonpayment of wages.
• SB 1383 (Jackson) –  Provides job protection to all workers who take Paid Family Leave who work for employers with 5 or more employees and aligns the definitions of family member under the Paid Family Leave program and the CA Family Rights Act.

Budget wins: these Stronger California priority budget proposals were included in the California 2020-2021 budget:

• Child care – Protects and expands child care for essential workers, provides financial resources to child care programs open during the pandemic.
• CalEITC – Expands eligibility for the CA Earned Income Tax Credit — a proven anti-poverty tool — to ITIN filers with a child under 6.
• CalWORKs – Provides people with the full set of CalWORKs benefits and services for the full 60 months allowed under federal law.
• SSI/SSP – Preserves the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for low income Californians receiving SSI/SSP benefits.

The Stronger California 2020 agenda addresses the most pressing needs of working women and low-income families in our state in the wake of COVID-19 and the resulting economic crisis. Read more about the 2020 agenda.