Gender discrimination: civil actions.

Existing state and federal law prohibits discrimination based on sex. Existing state law, the Unruh Civil Rights Act, prohibits discrimination on a variety of personal characteristics including sex and defines sex to include pregnancy and childbirth. The act provides that sex includes gender and that gender is sex, and that gender includes gender identity and gender expression. Existing law prohibits a business from boycotting or discriminating, among other actions, based on a characteristic protected by the Unruh Civil Rights Act. Existing law, the Gender Tax Repeal Act of 1995, prohibits a business from discriminating on the basis of a person's gender with respect to the price charged for services of similar or like kind. That existing law does not prohibit price differences based on the amount of time, difficulty, or cost of providing the services. Existing law requires specified businesses, including tailors, barbers and hair salons, and dry cleaners and laundries providing services to individuals, to post a price list in an area conspicuous to customers and to display a clearly visible sign with specified information pertaining to the prohibition on gender-based pricing discrimination. Existing law prescribes remedies for violations of these prohibitions, which include actual damages, any amount determined by a jury or a court up to a maximum of 3 times the amount of actual damages but in no case less than $4,000, and attorney's fees to be determined by the court. This bill would enact the Small Business Gender Discrimination in Services Compliance Act, and would define a "gender discrimination in pricing services claim" as a civil claim in a civil action with respect to a business establishment, including, but not limited to, a claim brought under the Unruh Civil Rights Act or the Gender Tax Repeal Act of 1995, based on an alleged price difference charged for services of similar or like kind against a person because of the person's gender. The bill would require an attorney, with each demand letter or complaint alleging gender discrimination in pricing services, to provide the defendant or potential defendant with a copy of informational materials pertaining to the prohibition against discrimination in pricing of services. The bill would require those materials to include a specified advisory notice to be adopted by the Judicial Council and a pamphlet or informational materials to be developed by the Department of Consumer Affairs for use by tailors and businesses providing aftermarket clothing alterations, barbers and hair salons, and dry cleaners and laundries providing services to individuals that explain the business' rights and obligations under the Gender Tax Repeal Act of 1995.