republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20172018/ab-46.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Employers: wage discrimination."
description: "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."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20172018"
identifier: "AB 46"
citation: "California AB 46 (20172018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Employers: wage discrimination."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Cooper"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 20
vote_count: 4
first_action: "2016-12-05"
last_action: "2017-10-14"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/26f64aec-a93e-4708-b1ec-9b66bf480c11"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB46"
source_hash: "83e84e24c21fd07ebf2fa3c719c6aecb59b888d9083f378bf3561d2ce9499e7a"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 46 (20172018) — Employers: wage discrimination.

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.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **12/05/16 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB46&version=20170AB4699INT)
2. **10/14/17 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB46&version=20170AB4697CHP)
3. **AB46** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB46)
4. **09/15/17 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB46&version=20170AB4698ENR)

## Votes

- Special Consent Calendar # AB46 — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Cooper — primary (person)
- Gonzalez Fletcher — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2016-12-05** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2016-12-06** From printer. May be heard in committee January 5.
- **2017-04-06** Referred to Com. on L. & E. `referral-committee`
- **2017-04-20** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 6. Noes 1.) (April 19). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2017-05-10** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 15. Noes 0.) (May 10). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2017-05-11** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-05-30** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 71. Noes 2. Page 1789.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2017-05-30** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2017-06-08** Referred to Coms. on P.E. & R. and JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2017-06-27** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (June 26). Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2017-07-12** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (July 11). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2017-08-21** In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2017-09-01** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (September 1). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2017-09-05** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-09-12** Ordered to special consent calendar.
- **2017-09-14** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 2906.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2017-09-14** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2017-09-25** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 12 p.m.
- **2017-10-14** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2017-10-14** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 776, Statutes of 2017.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/26f64aec-a93e-4708-b1ec-9b66bf480c11`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).