With California’s unemployment rate among the highest in the nation, employers doing business in the state are particularly sensitive to new legislation that would further increase the burdens on businesses and hamper economic growth. With these concerns in mind, the California Chamber of Commerce has released its annual list of "Job Killer Bills," which consists this year of 28 proposed laws that would impose even more costly workplace and employee benefit mandates, economic development barriers, expensive regulatory burdens and inflated liability costs. Included in the list are statutes that would automatically index the California minimum wage to the rate of inflation, increase taxes on small businesses, expand the scope of employee leaves, and limit employer use of consumer credit reports. The Chamber of Commerce hopes its list will bring greater awareness to the myriad challenges California employers face: "We simply cannot allow California to continue to be ranked as having one of the worst business climates in the country," said Allan Zarember, President and CEO of the California Chamber of Commerce.

The 2011 "job killer" bill list is available here.