It’s that time of year again for certain California employers. The California Civil Rights Department (CRD) has updated its pay data reporting resources. Covered employers should start thinking about their annual pay data reports — due May 13, 2026 — and take note of some changes to this year’s report.
California requires private employers with at least 100 employees and/or at least 100 workers hired through labor contractors to submit annual pay data reports to the CRD. Employers must report detailed information covering a snapshot period of the previous year, which the CRD calls Reporting Year 2025 (RY 2025), including:
- The number of employees by race, ethnicity and sex in 10 different job categories;
- The number of employees by race, ethnicity and sex whose annual earnings fall within each of the pay bands used by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Occupational Employment Statistics survey; and
- The median and mean hourly rates within each job category, for each combination of race, ethnicity and sex.
The CRD has released updated Microsoft Excel templates and CSV examples for the RY 2025 report on its pay data reporting website, as well as an updated Pay Data Reporting Handbook and FAQs.
As previously reported, California passed a new law that will increase the number of job categories from 10 to 23, but this change doesn’t take effect until 2027. For this year’s report, job categories remain at 10.
However, this year’s report has new data fields. As it often does, each year, the CRD makes small changes to the reporting templates and fields. Last year, the CRD included additional race/ethnicity categories. For RY 2025, reports must include the following new information:
- Exemption status (exempt or nonexempt)
- Employment type (full time, part time or intermittent); and
- Weeks worked during the reporting year
The CRD’s updated FAQs explain how employers can report this information.
Employers should begin reviewing these resources and templates and preparing their reports. Employers that are required to submit labor contractor employee reports should start early, since they will have to work with their labor contractors to obtain the required information.
The pay data reporting portal is scheduled to open on February 2, 2026, and reports are due on May 13, 2026.
James W. Ward, J.D., Employment Law Subject Matter Expert/Legal Writer and Editor, CalChamber
CalChamber members can read more about “Pay Data Reporting in California” in EEO Reporting Requirements in the HR Library. Not a member? Learn how a CalChamber membership can help power your business.
