Those laws are usually based on the size of the company. FMLA (not CA, but relevant) only applies to companies of over 50 employeees, and if you've been there for more than a year. You can get around a lot of those laws with using contractors.

Regarding Obamacare, one of the criticisms of the law was that companies promptly began offering employees one hour fewer a week than would meet the health care requirement.