Reporting Time Pay Laws in California

In California, an employee who is required to report for work and does report, but is given less than half of the usual or scheduled day’s work, must be paid for half of that day’s work, with a minimum of two hours and a maximum of four hours of pay.⁠1 This guaranteed pay is called reporting time pay.

A second rule covers employees who are called back. An employee who is required to report for work a second time in the same workday, and who is given less than two hours of work on that second report, must be paid for two hours.⁠2

Reporting time pay is owed at the employee’s regular rate of pay, which cannot be less than the minimum wage.⁠3 It does not matter why the employer cut the shift short, unless one of a few narrow exceptions applies. Those exceptions cover threats to employees or property, failures of public utilities, and causes outside the employer’s control.⁠4

According to the Labor Commissioner, an employee who works part of a shift is paid for the time worked, plus enough reporting time pay to reach the minimum for the day.⁠5 The table below shows that minimum for common shift lengths.

The rest of this article explains who is covered, what counts as reporting for work, how the pay is calculated, when it is not owed, and how to recover it.

What Reporting Time Pay Is

Reporting time pay is a partial guarantee. An employee who is told to come to work is promised at least some pay for the day, even if the employer decides it does not need the employee after all.

The Basic Rule

Reporting time pay is owed for a workday when three things are true:

• Required to Report. The employer required the employee to report for work.
• Reported. The employee did report.
• Too Little Work. The employee was not put to work, or was given less than half of the usual or scheduled day’s work.⁠7

When those conditions are met, the employee must be paid for half of the usual or scheduled day’s work. The pay can never be for less than two hours or more than four hours.⁠8

The rule has two purposes. It compensates employees, and it encourages employers to give proper notice and to schedule carefully.⁠9 As one court put it, reporting time pay “requires employers to internalize some of the costs of overscheduling.”⁠10

Where the Rule Comes From

Reporting time pay comes from California’s wage orders. These are regulations issued by the Industrial Welfare Commission, a state agency the Legislature created in 1913 to set minimum wages, maximum hours, and working conditions.⁠11 The commission lost its funding in 2004, but its wage orders remain in effect and have the force of law.⁠12

Each wage order covers an industry or a group of occupations, and reporting time pay appears in section 5. The orders for retail stores, for professional, technical, clerical, and mechanical occupations, and for agricultural occupations all use the same language.⁠13

The rule is an old one. The commission added reporting time pay to its orders in the 1940s, and the version in the retail order dates to 1979.⁠14

Which Employees Are Covered

The rule protects nonexempt employees who work in an industry or occupation whose wage order has a reporting time pay section. Section 5 refers to “an employee.” It does not distinguish between full-time and part-time workers.⁠15

Several groups fall outside the rule. Under the order for professional, technical, clerical, and mechanical occupations, reporting time pay does not apply to:

• Exempt Employees. People employed in executive, administrative, or professional capacities.⁠16 See Exempt vs. Non-Exempt Employees: Guide to California Law.
• Outside Salespersons. Employees who meet the test described in The Outside Salesperson Exemption to California’s Labor Laws.⁠17
• Government Employees. People employed directly by the state or by a city, county, or special district.⁠18
• Close Family. The employer’s parent, spouse, or child.⁠19

Other orders draw their own lines. The agricultural order, for example, does not apply its reporting time pay section to employers with fewer than five covered employees, or to sheepherders.⁠20 The order for on-site construction, drilling, logging, and mining has its own version of the rule, which is discussed below.⁠21

Wage orders protect employees. A worker who has been misclassified as an independent contractor is still an employee, and is still covered.⁠22 To learn more, see Independent Contractor vs. Employee (California Law).

Is There a Four-Hour Minimum Shift in California?

No. The “four-hour minimum shift” is a misreading of the reporting time pay rule.⁠23

The rule guarantees pay, not hours. It applies only when an employee is given less than half of a usual or scheduled shift, and four hours is the most it ever requires.⁠24 The Labor Commissioner’s own guidance describes a relief cashier who is regularly scheduled to work a one-hour shift.⁠25

A four-hour figure does appear in one other place. When employees vote to adopt an alternative workweek schedule, the agreement must provide for at least four hours of work in any shift.⁠26 That requirement applies only to those agreements. To learn more, see Overtime Wage Laws in California.

What Counts as Reporting for Work

Reporting time pay is owed only to an employee who “reports for work.” The wage orders use that phrase without defining it.⁠27 The leading case holds that an employee reports for work by presenting himself or herself as the employer has ordered, whatever form that takes.⁠28

Showing Up in Person

The familiar case is the employee who arrives at the workplace for the start of a shift. If the employer has told employees to appear in person, the employee reports for work by arriving at the job site.⁠29 The same is true of an employee who is told to appear at a client’s job site, or to set out on a trucking route.⁠30

The employee must actually report. An employee who is told to come in, and who does not show up, was not denied the chance to work and has no claim to reporting time pay.⁠31

Call-In and On-Call Shifts

Some employers schedule on-call shifts. The employee must hold the time open and contact the employer shortly beforehand to learn whether to come in.

In Ward v. Tilly’s, Inc., a retailer required employees to call the store two hours before each on-call shift. Employees who called late or not at all were disciplined. Employees who were told not to come in were paid nothing.⁠32

The Court of Appeal held that this practice triggers reporting time pay. When an employer requires employees to call in two hours before a shift, the phone call is the act of reporting for work. An employee who makes the call and is told to stay home has reported and has not been put to work.⁠33

The court reasoned that on-call shifts burden employees, who cannot take other jobs, attend classes, or make plans during those hours, yet receive nothing unless they are called in.⁠34

The decision has limits. An employer does not trigger reporting time pay merely by expecting employees to check their schedules.⁠36 The court also did not decide how much advance notice an employer must give to avoid the pay. It ruled only on the two-hour call-in practice before it.⁠37

Remote Work and Logging In

The same reasoning reaches remote work. If an employer directs employees to present themselves for work by logging on to a computer remotely, the employee reports for work by logging on.⁠38 Under that reasoning, a remote employee who logs in for a scheduled shift and is told there is no work stands in the same position as an employee who walked through the door.

Scheduled Meetings and Trainings

A required meeting or training is work, and the time must be paid.⁠39 Whether a short meeting also triggers reporting time pay depends on how it was scheduled.

• Scheduled Meeting That Runs Its Course. When a meeting is placed on the schedule in advance, and the employee is kept for at least half of the scheduled time, no reporting time pay is owed. That is true even if the meeting lasts less than two hours.⁠40
• Scheduled Meeting Cut Short. If the employee is sent home before half of the scheduled time has passed, the two-hour minimum applies.⁠41
• Meeting of No Set Length on a Day Off. An employee who is called in on a day off for a meeting of no set length, and who is released almost at once, is owed the two-hour minimum.⁠42
• Meeting After the Shift Ends. An employee who must report a second time in the same workday, for a meeting or training that lasts less than two hours, must be paid for two hours.⁠43

The Labor Commissioner’s enforcement manual has suggested a broader rule for meetings held on a day the employee does not usually work. The Court of Appeal declined to follow that view where the meeting was scheduled and the employee worked at least half of the scheduled time.⁠45

How to Calculate Reporting Time Pay

The calculation has two steps. First, find the number of hours the employee must be paid for. Second, multiply those hours by the employee’s regular rate of pay.

The First Report of the Workday

Start with the scheduled shift. Half of that shift is the minimum number of hours the employee must be paid for the day, but never less than two hours or more than four.⁠46

According to the Labor Commissioner, time actually worked counts toward that minimum. The employee is paid for the hours worked, and reporting time pay makes up the difference.⁠47

When the employee had a schedule for the day, the scheduled hours control, even if the employee’s usual day is longer.⁠49 The “usual” day’s work matters when there is no schedule to measure against. One court has suggested that this would be the measure for an employee who is called in on a day off and sent home early.⁠50

A Second Report in the Same Workday

The second rule is simpler. An employee who must report a second time in one workday, and who is given less than two hours of work on that second report, must be paid for two hours.⁠51 A workday is any consecutive 24-hour period that begins at the same time each calendar day.⁠52

This rule does not turn on how long the second report was scheduled to last. One court described it as an automatic entitlement to at least two hours of pay.⁠53

Being called back does not cancel reporting time pay that was already earned. According to the Labor Commissioner, an employee who is sent home after one hour of an eight-hour shift, and who is then called back to work a full shift, is still owed three hours of reporting time pay for the first report.⁠55

The Rate of Pay

Reporting time pay is owed at the employee’s regular rate of pay, which cannot be less than the minimum wage.⁠56 For an employee whose only pay is an hourly wage, the Labor Commissioner’s examples use that hourly wage.⁠57

The wage orders use the same phrase, “regular rate of pay,” for overtime. In that setting, the term covers not only hourly wages but also nondiscretionary payments, such as many bonuses.⁠58 To learn how that rate is computed, see Calculating the “Regular Rate of Pay” in California.

Reporting time pay is a form of wages.⁠59 That matters when an employer fails to pay it, as explained in the last chapter.

Reporting Time Pay and Overtime

According to the Labor Commissioner, reporting time pay is not payment for labor performed. The hours it covers are not hours worked, and they do not count toward the daily or weekly totals that trigger overtime.⁠60

Hours actually worked are a different matter. In the Labor Commissioner’s example, an employee who returns for a one-hour training after an eight-hour shift is paid for that hour at the overtime rate, plus one hour of reporting time pay at the regular rate.⁠62 To learn more, see Overtime Wage Laws in California.

When Reporting Time Pay Is Not Owed

Not every short day triggers reporting time pay. The wage orders list three exceptions and carve out paid standby. A few other situations fall outside the rule by its own terms. An exception removes only the reporting time pay. Time actually worked must still be paid.⁠63

Threats to Safety and Orders from Civil Authorities

Reporting time pay is not owed when operations cannot begin or continue because of threats to employees or property, or when civil authorities recommend that work stop.⁠64

Utility Failures

The second exception applies when public utilities fail to supply electricity, water, or gas, or when there is a failure in the public utilities or the sewer system.⁠66 The exception is written in terms of public utilities and the sewer system.

Acts of God and Causes Outside the Employer’s Control

The third exception applies when the interruption of work is caused by an act of God or another cause that is not within the employer’s control.⁠67 The Labor Commissioner gives an earthquake as an example.⁠68

These exceptions reflect the purpose of the rule. Reporting time pay is aimed at overscheduling, so it does not apply when a shift is lost for reasons the employer could not control.⁠69

Slow business is not on the list. In the Labor Commissioner’s examples, employees who are sent home for lack of work are owed reporting time pay.⁠70

Paid Standby and Short Regular Shifts

The reporting time pay section does not apply to an employee on paid standby status who is called to perform assigned work at a time other than the employee’s scheduled reporting time.⁠71 The carve-out is limited to standby time that is paid. The on-call employees in Ward v. Tilly’s, Inc. received nothing unless they were called in.⁠72

According to the Labor Commissioner, the rule also does not apply to an employee with a regularly scheduled shift of less than two hours, such as a relief cashier who works a one-hour midday shift.⁠73 That position does not appear in the text of the wage orders. One court has indicated that the two-hour minimum does apply when an employee is sent home less than halfway through a scheduled 90-minute meeting.⁠74

Leaving Early by Choice

Reporting time pay compensates an employee whom the employer did not put to work. An employee who chooses to leave has not been denied work.

Discipline and Poor Performance Are Not Exceptions

An employer cannot avoid reporting time pay by pointing to the employee’s performance. According to the Labor Commissioner, unsatisfactory work is not one of the exceptions.⁠76

The same is true of a termination meeting. In one case, an employee was called in on his day off and fired in a meeting that lasted about 45 seconds. His employer paid him two hours of reporting time pay, and the court held that was the minimum he was owed.⁠78

Special Rules for Construction, Drilling, Logging, and Mining

On-site work in construction, drilling, logging, and mining is governed by its own wage order. Its reporting time pay rule uses the same half-shift formula and the same three exceptions.⁠79 It differs in three ways:

• Reporting to the Work Site. The rule applies when an employee is “required to report to the work site and does report.”⁠80 Ward v. Tilly’s, Inc. interpreted different words, “report for work,” in the retail order.⁠81
• No Second-Report Rule. The section has no provision for a second report in the same workday.⁠82
• Union Contracts. The section applies to employees covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement unless the agreement expressly provides otherwise.⁠83

How to Recover Unpaid Reporting Time Pay

Reporting time pay is a wage. According to the Labor Commissioner, an employee who is not paid it can file a wage claim with the Labor Commissioner’s Office or file a lawsuit in court.⁠84 A good first step is to ask the employer to correct the paycheck.

Raising the Issue with the Employer

A request to correct a paycheck is easier to make with the facts in hand. It helps to gather:

• The Schedule. The posted or written schedule showing the shift, including any on-call shift.
• Time Records. Records showing when the employee reported and when the employee was sent home.
• Call-In Instructions. Any policy, text message, or email that required the employee to call or log in before a shift.
• Pay Stubs. The wage statement for the pay period, showing what was paid.

The wage orders require employers to make an employee’s time and pay records available for inspection by the employee on reasonable request.⁠85 To learn more, see Requesting Your Employee Records in California.

Filing a Wage Claim with the Labor Commissioner

An employee can file a wage claim with the Labor Commissioner’s Office, which is also called the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement. According to the Labor Commissioner, the process works as follows:⁠86

• Conference. A deputy labor commissioner may schedule a conference to see whether the claim can be resolved without a hearing.
• Hearing. If the claim is not resolved, it usually goes to a hearing, where the parties and witnesses testify under oath.
• Decision. After the hearing, the Labor Commissioner serves an Order, Decision, or Award.
• Appeal. Either side may appeal to court, where the case is tried again with new evidence and testimony.
• Enforcement. If the employer neither pays nor appeals, the Labor Commissioner has the court enter the award as a judgment.

For a step-by-step explanation, see How to File a Wage & Hour Claim in California.

Filing a Lawsuit

An employee may instead sue in court. The case that extended reporting time pay to call-in shifts, Ward v. Tilly’s, Inc., was filed as a putative class action on behalf of the retailer’s employees.⁠87

A lawsuit for reporting time pay is an action for unpaid wages, so attorney’s fees are governed by Labor Code section 218.5.⁠88 Under that statute, the court awards reasonable attorney’s fees and costs to the prevailing party when fees are requested at the start of the case. An employer that wins can recover its fees only if the court finds that the employee brought the action in bad faith.⁠89

Added Penalties

Because reporting time pay is a wage, an employer that has not paid it by the time the job ends may owe waiting time penalties, according to the Labor Commissioner.⁠90 To learn more, see The Waiting Time Penalty for Final Wages in California.

Other penalties can attach to unpaid wages. They are explained in Penalties for Wage, Hour, and Paycheck Violations in California.

Deadlines

Wage claims must be filed on time. According to the Labor Commissioner, when a law or regulation creates the liability, as with minimum wage and overtime, the deadline is three years from the violation.⁠91 Different deadlines apply to claims based on a contract and to some penalties. To learn more, see Common Litigation Deadlines in California Civil Cases.

Protection from Retaliation

According to the Labor Commissioner, an employee who is fired or otherwise retaliated against for saying that reporting time pay is owed, or for filing or threatening to file a claim, can file a retaliation complaint with the Labor Commissioner’s Office or a lawsuit in court.⁠92 To learn more, see Workplace Retaliation Laws in California.