Q: Where is the actual statute text?

Labor Code § 1197.5 , as amended effective January 1, 2026 — the state's official text is at leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, and the Labor Commissioner's updated summary is on the DIR website . We quote the operative subdivisions throughout this page.

Question 1

How Long Do You Now Have to File Under the Amended Equal Pay Act?

Accepted Answer

Three years from the last date the cause of action occurs, for every violation — the willful/non-willful distinction is gone. Just as important, § 1197.5(i)(3) provides that a cause of action occurs when a pay decision is adopted, when you become subject to it, and each time you are paid wages resulting from it. In practice, every underpaid paycheck starts a fresh three-year window, and § 1197.5(i)(4) expressly preserves the continuing violation doctrine and the discovery rule on top of that. Our guide to every equal pay deadline maps how the clocks interact.

Question 2

How Does the Six-Year Back Pay Recovery Work?

Accepted Answer

Under § 1197.5(i)(2), an employee is entitled to relief for the entire period the violation existed, capped at six years. Combined with paycheck accrual, that means a claim filed within three years of your last underpaid check can reach back up to six years of wage differential — then the Equal Pay Act doubles it: you recover the underpayment plus an equal amount as liquidated damages, along with interest and attorney's fees. Before SB 642, recovery was effectively limited to two or three years. The same gap is now worth roughly double — the full arithmetic is in our guide to what an equal pay claim is worth.

Question 3

Why Does It Matter That Stock and Bonuses Now Count as Wages?

Accepted Answer

Because in many industries — especially tech — the real pay gap isn't in base salary. Section 1197.5(l)(3) now defines wages to include "all forms of pay," expressly naming bonuses, stock, stock options, profit sharing and bonus plans, and benefits. An employer that pays two engineers the same salary but grants one materially larger equity for substantially similar work has an Equal Pay Act problem. Our guide to tech pay discrimination covers equity-gap claims in depth.

Question 4

What Does the 'Another Sex' Amendment Change?

Accepted Answer

Before 2026, § 1197.5(a) compared wages between employees of the "opposite sex" — binary language that left nonbinary employees in a legal gray area. SB 642 replaced it with "another sex." A nonbinary employee paid less than a colleague of any other sex for substantially similar work now has a textual claim, and comparisons no longer have to run male-versus-female. FEHA's separate protections for gender identity and expression still apply alongside — our employment discrimination attorneys routinely pair the two claims.

Question 5

Does SB 642 Apply to a Pay Gap That Started Before 2026?

Accepted Answer

Frequently, yes, as to ongoing underpayment. Because each paycheck that reflects the unlawful decision gives rise to a new cause of action, a gap that began years ago but continued into the limitations period can still be actionable, with recovery reaching back up to six years. How the amendments apply to any specific timeline is fact-dependent — this is exactly the question to put to a lawyer in a free case review rather than guess at.

Question 6

I found out about a pay gap from 2022. Is it too late to do anything?

Accepted Answer

Maybe not. If the underpayment continued into the last three years, each of those paychecks created a fresh claim, and recovery can reach back as far as six years from filing. Timing questions like this are exactly what a free case review resolves.

Question 7

Is SB 642 retroactive?

Accepted Answer

It doesn't revive claims that were already dead and gone, but because every underpaid paycheck creates a new violation, ongoing gaps that straddle January 1, 2026 are generally analyzed under the new, longer windows. An attorney can map your specific dates.

Question 8

Do RSUs count in an equal pay comparison now?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The amended statute expressly includes stock and stock options in the definition of wages, so equity grants and refreshes are part of the pay being compared.

Question 9

Did SB 642 change job posting rules too?

Accepted Answer

Yes — the posted pay scale must now be a good-faith estimate of what the employer expects to pay upon hire under Labor Code § 432.3, aimed at meaninglessly wide ranges. The equal pay comparison rules above are separate but often work together with posting violations.

Question 10

Where is the actual statute text?

Accepted Answer

Labor Code § 1197.5, as amended effective January 1, 2026 — the state's official text is at leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, and the Labor Commissioner's updated summary is on the DIR website. We quote the operative subdivisions throughout this page.

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