Practical guidance for employers.

Meal and Rest Breaks in California

A 30-minute meal break over five hours, a paid 10-minute rest break every four. Premium pay for missed breaks caps at two hours a day, not one per break.

Lab. Code §§ 226.7, 512

Health and safety

Workplace Violence Prevention Plans

California workplace violence prevention plans: written procedures, training, incident logs, and the requirements for the small-worksite exemption.

Lab. Code § 6401.9

Employee relations

Responding to a Harassment Complaint

FEHA creates a duty to investigate promptly once you are on notice. How the complaint is handled usually matters more than the incident itself.

Gov. Code § 12950.1 (training); § 12940(j)–(k) (duty to investigate and prevent)

Classification

Employee or Independent Contractor?

California's ABC test is the default. AB 2257 exempts a long list of relationships, which fall back to the older and more flexible Borello standard.

Lab. Code §§ 2775–2787

Leave and accommodation

Tracking Leaves of Absence

Paid sick leave, CFRA at five employees, pregnancy disability and local ordinances overlap. The usual failure is losing track, not refusing leave.

Gov. Code § 12945.2 (CFRA); Lab. Code § 246 (paid sick leave)

Pay

California Pay Transparency Rules

Good-faith pay ranges on job postings at 15 employees, an annual pay data report at 100. A defensively wide range is not a good-faith range.

Lab. Code § 432.3 (job postings); Gov. Code § 12999 (pay data reports)

Investigations

Why an Investigation Needs a Neutral

No statute lists the steps. FEHA still requires promptness and objectivity, and an investigator close to the people involved undermines the finding.

Gov. Code § 12940(j)–(k)

Wage and hour

Remote and Hybrid Work Compliance

Breaks, overtime and expense reimbursement all still apply. Labor Code 2802 requires covering what the work needs, including internet and phone.

Lab. Code § 2802

Leave and accommodation

California Paid Sick Leave Rules

California paid sick leave: accrual and front-loading, at least 40 hours or five days of annual use, carryover, and local rules that can require more.

Lab. Code § 246

Records

What Employees Can Demand to See

A current or former employee can ask for their personnel file, and you have 30 days. Payroll records run on 21. Both clocks start at the request.

Lab. Code §§ 1198.5, 226, 432

Records

Which Notices You Have to Post

Postings change most years, the 2019 poster is still on the wall, and an inspector looks at the wall first. Remote staff need the same content another way.

Lab. Code § 1183 and the IWC wage orders, among others

Wage and hour

Final Pay and When It Is Due

California final-pay deadlines and waiting time penalties: when wages are due, how resignation notice matters, and why willfulness affects penalties.

Lab. Code §§ 201, 202, 203, 227.3

Classification

Exempt, or Just Salaried?

Paying a salary does not make someone exempt. The test is the salary floor and what the person actually spends more than half their time doing.

Lab. Code § 515; IWC wage orders

Leave and accommodation

The Interactive Process

Failing to engage in the conversation is its own violation, separate from whether the accommodation was reasonable. Saying no too fast is the usual error.

Gov. Code § 12940(m), (n)

Best practice

4 topics

Policy

Keeping Your Employee Handbook Current

No law requires a handbook. Several policies inside one are mandatory, which is why a handbook two years old is usually wrong rather than merely stale.

No single controlling statute. Individual policies inside the handbook (harassment, sick leave, and others) carry their own separate citations.

Performance

Performance Documentation That Holds Up

No statute sets a review process. The record is still what a challenged termination stands on, so write it in the moment rather than months later.

No single controlling statute. Best-practice standard.

Fraud

Behavioral Red Flags of Workplace Fraud

84% of occupational fraudsters show a warning sign before they are caught. Living beyond apparent means leads, at 39% of cases, then financial trouble.

ACFE, Report to the Nations: Behavioral Red Flags of Fraud

Fraud

Internal Controls That Reduce Fraud

Fraud costs the median organization 5% of revenue a year. Management review, surprise audits and proactive data monitoring measurably cut the losses.

ACFE, Report to the Nations: Key Findings