Senate bill 1340 becomes law

SB 1340 implements recommendation from state’s Reparations Task Force

September 27, 2024

The Southern California Black Worker Hub for Regional Organizing applauded Governor Newsom for signing Senate Bill 1340 into law yesterday, and praised Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles) for leading the fight to address the impacts of workplace discrimination on Black and Brown workers.

“Access to quality job opportunities strengthens communities and has multi-generational impact; we are grateful that Governor Newsom recognized that stronger enforcement of our anti-discrimination laws is critical to California’s equity agenda,” said Dawn Modkins, Executive Director of the Southern California Black Worker Hub. “The Southern California Black Worker Hub is proud to have partnered with Senator Smallwood-Cuevas to bring this bill forward as a direct response to the state’s Reparations Task Force’s recommendation that the state more strongly enforce anti-discrimination laws. By signing SB 1340 into law, Governor Newsom has taken a significant step to ensure that access and pathways to good career opportunities, with protections are available to all Californians – regardless of protected status.”

The SoCal Black Worker Hub sponsored the landmark bill to boost enforcement of employment nondiscrimination laws in California through state partnership with local agencies. The measure seeks to address disproportionate rates of unemployment, poverty, homelessness and housing insecurity among Black and Brown workers. The bill applies to all protected classes of workers named in California’s workplace nondiscrimination laws.

“I saw grown men and women coming up to me, crying, telling me that management was messing with them, supervisors threatened them, they thought they were going to lose their jobs,” said Anthony Holmes, a refuse worker in Long Beach and a panelist at the Southern California Black Worker Hub’s recent Black August forum. “I tell them, ‘Don’t let management or supervisors bully you or threaten you; making you afraid to speak out publicly about workplace issues and anti-Blackness. Stand up for something. Make a change so that your kids won’t have to deal with what you went through.’ We’ve been pushing for fairness for centuries. With the Governor’s signature, this will be one more step forward on that journey.”

Background: SB 1340 takes a critical step toward addressing the backlog of enforcement under current anti-discrimination laws by promoting partnerships between local civil rights offices, community worker organizations, and the state labor agency.

Key facts about Black workers, unemployment, and the wealth gap:

• In a recent survey, 1 in 4 Black workers reported experiencing discrimination at work.
• The unemployment rate in 2024 for Black workers is 8.2%, versus 4.8% for white workers.
• 48% of Black workers in California were concentrated in the lowest paid jobs.
• In California, Black women earn 61 cents for every dollar earned by a white male.
• 55% of Black workers reported not pushing for better work conditions because of a fear of retaliation, compared to 40% overall.
• Nationally, the wealth disparity between Black and White households is projected to cost the United States between $1 and 1.5 trillion between 2019 and 2028.