For over 15 years, Mariko has been shaping legislative policy in California, with a focus on workers’ rights, gender + racial justice, and social equity. Mariko started her career as a Law Fellow for the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee, analyzing and shaping state labor and employment legislation. After law school, she became a legislative aide for Assembly Member Felipe Fuentes. She left the Assembly in 2010 to direct and lead the California Employment Lawyers Association’s legislative efforts to advance and protect workers’ rights in California.

Working with the top employment lawyers and advocates in the state, Mariko has advanced major policy reforms around harassment and discrimination, equal pay, and family leave. Mariko helped draft and pass the landmark Fair Pay Act in 2015 and subsequent equal pay legislation banning inquiries into prior salary and requiring employers to report gender and race pay data to the state. At the height of the #MeToo movement, she led efforts to pass comprehensive sexual harassment legislation, giving California the strongest harassment laws in the nation. And in 2020, she was one of the lead advocates for SB 1383, giving over 6 million more workers the right to take job-protected family leave.

Over the years, Mariko has worked on a variety of other issues, including: wage theft and retaliation; forced arbitration and other access to justice issues; immigrant employee rights; whistleblower protections; LGBTQ+ rights; religious and disability accommodations; sick leave; ban the box and conviction history discrimination; confidentiality clauses and NDA’s; and worker health and safety. Mariko is proud to have helped shape and pass legislation on these important issues through coalitions and partnerships with the many unions and organizations dedicated to making California a better place to live and work.

Mariko graduated cum laude from UC Hastings College of the Law and summa cum laude from San Jose State University where she also played Division I soccer. Mariko serves on the boards of the ACLU of Northern California and ACLU California Action. She was the founding board chair of the Sacramento non-profit, the Center for Workers' Rights. In her spare time Mariko likes to cook, travel, run and play soccer and volleyball.

Awards and Recognition

  • National Employment Lawyers Association Distinguished Service Award, 2019

  • Center for Workers’ Rights: Legislative Leadership Award, 2019

  • Daily Journal Top Labor and Employment Lawyers, 2015

  • Church State Council Sojourner Truth Award, 2014

Mariko Yoshihara, Esq.

Principal | Attorney | Policy Advocate