1. (a) Recruitment and Advertising.

   1. (1) Employers or other covered entities engaged in recruiting activity (see section 11015(a)) shall recruit individuals of both sexes for all jobs unless pursuant to a permissible defense.
   2. (2) It is unlawful for any publication or other media to separate listings of job openings into male and female classifications.

2. (b) Pre-Employment Inquiries and Applications.

   1. (1) For all employers or other covered entities who provide, accept and consider applications, it shall be unlawful to refuse to provide, accept and consider applications from individuals of one sex unless pursuant to a permissible defense.
   2. (2) It is unlawful for an employer or other covered entity to ask the sex of the applicant on an application form or pre-employment questionnaire, unless the question is asked pursuant to a permissible defense or for recordkeeping purposes. After an individual is hired, the employer or other covered entity may record the employee's sex for non-discriminatory personnel purposes.
   3. (3) It is unlawful for an employer or other covered entity to ask questions regarding childbearing, pregnancy, birth control, or familial responsibilities unless the questions are related to specific and relevant working conditions of the job in question.
   4. (4) It is unlawful for an employer or other covered entity to use an automated-decision system or selection criteria (including a qualification standard, employment test, or proxy) that discriminates against an applicant or employee or a class of applicants or employees on the basis of sex, subject to any available defense. Relevant to any such claim or available defense is evidence, or the lack of evidence, of anti-bias testing or similar proactive efforts to avoid unlawful discrimination, including the quality, efficacy, recency, and scope of such effort, the results of such testing or other effort, and the response to the results.

Note: Authority cited: Section 12935(a), Government Code. Reference: Sections 12920, 12921, 12940, 12943 and 12945, Government Code.

History

1. Change without regulatory effect renumbering former section 7290.9 to new section 11032 and amending section and Note filed 10-3-2013 pursuant to section 100, title 1, California Code of Regulations (Register 2013, No. 40).

2. New subsection (b)(4) filed 6-27-2025; operative 10-1-2025 (Register 2025, No. 26).