Labor Commissioner: unlawful discrimination: report.

Existing law prohibits a person from discharging or otherwise discriminating, retaliating, or taking any adverse action against any employee or applicant for employment because the employee or applicant engaged in specified protected conduct. Under existing law, an aggrieved employee or applicant is entitled to specific remedies, and may file a complaint with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement. Existing law prohibits an employer from paying any of its employees at wage rates less than the rates paid to employees of the opposite sex for substantially similar work, when viewed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility, and performed under similar working conditions, unless the employer demonstrates that one or more specific factors, reasonably applied, account for the entire wage differential. Existing law also similarly prohibits an employer from paying any of its employees at wage rates less than the rates paid to employees of another race or ethnicity for substantially similar work. Existing law authorizes an employee paid lesser wages in violation of these prohibitions to file a complaint with the division, and authorizes the commencement of a civil action. Existing law requires the Labor Commissioner to submit an annual report to the Legislature by February 15 of each year providing specific information with respect to discrimination complaints under the above provisions for the previous calendar year. This bill would change the deadline for that report to March 15 of each year, commencing with March 15, 2022.