State Equity Standard

The state of California has a plain language equity standard that all government departments must meet. This standard applies to both print and digital information. All communications and products for EDD customers will be written in plain language (State law) and in compliance with California Executive Order N-16-22 (PDF) and the State’s plain language equity standard.  

With more than 39 million California residents, our communication needs are vast and diverse. In fact, 7 million people alone speak more than 200 languages. We must make sure all Californians can understand what we write. 

To meet this goal, the plain language equity standard requires us to do the following.

• Provide information to the public at an 8th grade reading level or lower.
• Use smaller, more common words.
• Avoid jargon and technical terms.
• Keep sentences short and simple.

These standards are important plain language strategies. Remember, no one ever complained that written information was too easy to understand!