I would prefer that my employer consider some of my expenses for working from home to be expenses rather than things that I pay out of my salary.
Suppose I have $500/mo in "real" expenses. I'm better off if my company reduces my otherwise-salary by $500/mo and gives me an expense reimbursement for even $400/mo. That $400/mo is non-taxable to me and tax-deductible to the company. So, the company saves $100/mo (the difference between $400/mo and $500/mo), and I have an extra ~$100/mo ($400 - $500/mo * (1 - marginal_tax_rate)), assuming a marginal tax rate (combined fed/state/local) of 40%.
Yeah, but the rest of us don't want that because we have to pick up the slack in taxes. Personally, I would prefer if I just didn't pay any income taxes. That way, I would save a few hundred thousand and my employer could pay me a hundred thousand less and I'd come out ahead.
You should be opposed to this California law then, because it is codifying that these are required business expenses and eligible for exactly this treatment.
There's no new law. This is just someone's interpretation of existing tax law. You'll be hard-pressed to gain anything worthwhile from this. Doubt it will even exceed the standard deduction so no one takes it. If you do the whole "this area is my work space" deduction, you increase your chance of being audited. And then all the gains are wasted in handling that thing which is a bloody hassle.
So in the end it’s all part of salary. Not tax-exempting just shows how inept the company’s finance team is more than whether or not they value your time.
Some do some don't. I worked at a place that paid for public transportation or an equivalent amount for gas cards. Lots of employers even provide parking for your car for free. Others require you to pay for your own parking.
Otherwise why don't companies pay for my gas/tire/shoe soles/&c ?