Starting Monday, California employers can no longer ask most job applicants about their criminal records until a conditional offer has been made, and can’t ask any job seekers about their salary history unless the applicant volunteers this information.

These are two of more than two dozen state workplace laws passed in 2017 that take effect in the new year.

Another one will require employers with 20 to 49 employees to give eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to bond with a new child within the first 12 months of the child’s birth, adoption or foster placement. Larger employers in California already had this requirement.

The statewide minimum wage also will go up by 50 cents per hour Monday to $10.50 per hour for employers with 25 or fewer workers and to $11 per hour for employers with 26 or more employees. That increase was mandated under a 2016 law that is gradually increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour. Some California cities already have higher minimum wages.

Experts say the most significant new law is AB1008, the California Fair Chance Act. It prohibits public- and private-sector employers with five or more employees from seeking information about a prospective worker’s criminal history in job applications or interviews or running a criminal background check until a “conditional offer of employment” has been made. The goal is to reduce recidivism by preventing employers from rejecting ex-offenders out of hand.

The act goes further than California’s existing “ban-the-box” law, which prevents employers from asking applicants about arrest records that did not result in a conviction, juvenile offenses, expunged convictions and nonfelony marijuana-possession convictions more than 2 years old. The existing law also prohibits state and local government agencies (but not companies or federal agencies) from asking applicants about criminal convictions until the agency determined that the applicant meets minimum employment qualifications.

The old and new laws exempt certain positions, such as those where a criminal background check is required by law.

Under the new law, once an employer has made a job offer contingent on a background check, it may seek an applicant’s conviction record, but must take certain steps before it can rescind the offer. It must conduct an “individualized assessment” that considers the “nature and gravity” of the offense, how old it is and whether it’s relevant to the job. Before withdrawing the offer, the employer must give the applicant a copy of the conviction record and at least five business days to dispute it or provide evidence of rehabilitation. The employer must consider any response and notify the candidate in writing if it still revokes the offer.

In 2012, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published “guidance” recommending that employers nationwide conduct this type of individualized assessment to prevent inadvertent discrimination against people based on their race or national origin. Studies have shown that African Americans and Latinos are arrested and incarcerated at higher rates than whites and Asians.

However, California’s new law “is more robust and protective” than the EEOC guidance, said Chaya Mandelbaum, a San Francisco attorney who represents employees. Guidance is not binding on courts the way statutes are, and an agency can reinterpret its past guidance, “as we have seen in other contexts with the new administration,” he said. More importantly, the individualized assessment is mandatory under the new state law.

Thirty states and about 150 cities or counties have passed ban-the-box legislation, but California’s new law is one of the strongest because rejected applicants can file a complaint with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing to enforce it and, if necessary, go to court, said Maurice Emsellem of the National Employment Law Project.

It goes further than San Francisco’s ordinance, which lets employers consider an applicant’s criminal record during the first live interview and applies to employers with at least 20 workers.

The new law will help ex-convicts even before they get out of prison because it will “give them the opportunity to dream they could have a different life,” said Dorsey Nunn, executive director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children in San Francisco, who campaigned for it.

Michael Hannigan, president of Give Something Back, also supported it. His Oakland company, which sells wholesale office supplies, has donated more than 70 percent of its profits to nonprofits and plans to ultimately donate 100 percent.

“We hire the best people for the job,” including those with criminal records and other barriers to employment, Hannigan said.

It has never run criminal background checks on job applicants, but will check their driving record if its insurance company requires it. The company has hired ex-offenders through agencies that help them find jobs and had to fire one who later got arrested for an off-the-job crime. Its open-minded employment policy “has not adversely affected our ability to be a very competitive company,” Hannigan said.

A report published by the Urban Institute this year summarized research on ban-the-box policies in cities and states that have adopted them. It found some evidence that they increase callback rates for job applicants with criminal records but little evidence that their hiring rates actually improve.

It also found a potential negative unintended consequence. One study found that after New York City and New Jersey banned the box, “the disparities in callbacks between black and white applicants jumped from white applicants receiving 7 percent more callbacks than black applicants to 45 percent more.” The reason could be that “as information about potential job applicants is restricted, employers may shift their decision-making cues to other sources,” which could include “relying on racist stereotypes, a form of illegal discrimination,” the report said.

Another new workplace law with broad impact is AB168. It prohibits all public- and private-sector California employers from asking about a job applicant’s current or prior salary in job applications, interviews and through outside recruiters. They also cannot consider salary history in determining whether to hire someone, unless the applicant voluntarily discloses the information.

It also requires employers to give an applicant, upon request, the pay scale for the position. The main goal is to stop the perpetuation of gender pay gaps from one job to the next.

Another new law, SB63, requires California employers with 20 or more employees to give up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected job leave to eligible workers to bond with a new child. They also must maintain the employee’s health coverage during this leave. Employers with 50 or more employees already have this requirement.

This is called baby bonding leave. Mothers and fathers, including foster and adoptive parents, can take it. Some employees may get partial pay for up to six weeks during this leave through the state’s Paid Family Leave program.

Baby bonding must be taken within 12 months of the child’s birth, adoption or foster placement. Although the law does not take effect until Monday, parents covered by it could take at least some of this leave for a child born, adopted or placed in foster care in 2017, said Erika Frank, general counsel for the California Chamber of Commerce.

Kathleen Pender is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: kpender@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kathpender

For more information

For an overview of new California workplace laws, see http://bit.ly/2zaAbGg

For information on the California Fair Chance Act, see http://bit.ly/2pKxHvC

For more on the law preventing salary questions, see http://bit.ly/2hKxS2D

More than minimum

The statewide minimum wage goes up by 50 cents per hour on Monday to $10.50 for employers with 25 or fewer workers and to $11 per hour for larger employers. These Bay Area cities have higher minimum wages, and some are also going up next year.

City Minimum hourly wage (effective Jan. 1, 2018) Berkeley $13.75 Cupertino $13.50* El Cerrito $13.60* Emeryville $14** Los Altos $13.50* Milpitas $12* Mountain View $15* Oakland $13.23* Palo Alto $13.50* Richmond $13.41* San Francisco $14 San Jose $13.50* San Leandro $12 San Mateo $13.50 Santa Clara $13* Sunnyvale $15*

*These wages represent increases from current rate.

**Emeryville minimum wage is $15.20 for business with more than 55 employees