New Leave Laws a Hit to California Companies Struggling to Hire

California is expanding private-sector leave benefits, requiring companies to give their employees more time off in a tight labor market where they’re already strapped for workers and paying their hires more.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) last week signed into law a slate of last-minute labor and employment bills that guarantee job-protected bereavement leave and expand family leave to cover “designated persons” such as close friends. The governor also OK’d a measure extending the state’s supplemental Covid-19 paid sick leave policy until the end of the year.

Together, the laws represent what employer compliance advisers view as a torrent of new ...