California Labor Code 2810.5: Notice Content, Delivery, and Penalties

Before a new hire performs any work, California Labor Code Section 2810.5 notice requirements oblige nearly every private-sector employer to deliver a written, standalone notice stating the employee’s pay rate, regular payday, the employer’s legal identity and contact information, the workers’ compensation carrier, paid sick leave rights, and any active emergency or disaster declaration covering the work county. Skip it, bury it inside a handbook, or forget to update it after a change, and you open the door to per-employee, per-pay-period penalties under the Private Attorneys General Act.

Who Must Receive the Notice

The notice goes to virtually every private-sector employee at the time of hiring, full-time or part-time.¹ Three groups are excluded:

Anyone directly employed by the state or a political subdivision such as a city, county, or special district.
Workers who are exempt from overtime pay under a statute or an Industrial Welfare Commission wage order.
Workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement that expressly addresses wages, hours, and working conditions, provides premium overtime rates, and guarantees a regular hourly rate at least 30 percent above the state minimum wage.²

There is no blanket company-wide exemption. If some of your workers fit one of those categories and others don’t, you still owe the notice to everyone who doesn’t.

What Has to Be on the Notice

The statute lists ten categories of information. You can use the Labor Commissioner’s official template or build your own form, so long as every required element appears.² The notice must state:

The employee’s rate of pay and how it is calculated (hourly, salary, piece rate, commission, shift, day, week, or otherwise), along with any applicable overtime rates.¹
Any meal or lodging allowances the employer claims as part of the minimum wage.
The regular payday the employer has designated.
The employer’s legal name and any “doing business as” names.
The physical address of the main office or principal place of business, plus a mailing address if different.
The employer’s telephone number.
The name, address, and telephone number of the workers’ compensation insurance carrier. The Labor Commissioner’s template also asks for the policy number, so include it when you use the official form.³
A statement that the employee may accrue and use paid sick leave, may request accrued paid sick leave, cannot be fired or retaliated against for using it, and has the right to file a complaint if the employer retaliates.¹
Whether a federal or state emergency or disaster declaration applies to the county where the employee will work.
Anything else the Labor Commissioner deems material and necessary.

The official template already has fields for every item, including workers’ compensation details and the paid sick leave statement. It is the easiest way to avoid an accidental omission, but it is not the only legally acceptable format.

The Disaster Declaration Field

Starting January 1, 2024, Assembly Bill 636 added a new element. You must disclose any federal or state emergency or disaster declaration that applies to the county where the employee will work, if the declaration was issued within 30 days before the first day of employment and could affect the employee’s health or safety.¹ The updated template includes a checkbox and a space to describe the declaration and its potential impact.³

Given how often California deals with wildfires, earthquakes, and flooding, this field is active more than employers expect. Before onboarding anyone, check whether a declaration covers the county of employment. The declaration may have been issued weeks earlier and faded from the news, which is how this one gets missed.

When and How to Deliver It

The notice must be provided at the time of hiring, before the employee performs any work.² Deliver it in the language the employer normally uses to communicate employment-related information to that specific employee.¹ The Labor Commissioner publishes translated templates in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Tagalog.

A physical hard copy works. So does electronic delivery, if the system lets the employee acknowledge receipt and print a copy for their records. Either way, get a signed and dated acknowledgment. That signature is your proof of compliance during a Department of Industrial Relations audit or a wage claim. Keep the notice on its own standalone form. Do not bury it in an employee handbook or fold it into a longer employment agreement.

Updating the Notice After a Change

Whenever the information on the original notice changes, whether it’s a pay raise, a new workers’ comp carrier, or a different payday, you have seven calendar days to provide a written update.³ The clock runs from the date of the change, not the date someone in HR catches it.

Two exceptions let you skip the separate update. First, if all the changes are already reflected on a timely wage statement issued under Labor Code Section 226. Second, if the changes appear in another legally required writing delivered within seven days of the change.² In practice, issuing a fresh notice is often simpler than analyzing whether a pay stub technically covers every changed element.

Temp Agencies and H-2A Workers

Temporary staffing agencies, as defined in Labor Code Section 201.3, must add information about the client company where the worker will actually report: the client’s legal name, main office physical address, mailing address if different, and telephone number.¹ Security services companies licensed by the Department of Consumer Affairs that solely provide security services are excluded from this additional requirement.

Employees admitted under the federal H-2A agricultural visa program receive a supplemental notice covering California-specific rights that the standard form does not address, including the applicable wage rate, piece-rate rules, pay frequency, prohibited deductions, and workplace safety protections. Provide it no later than the worker’s first day on the job in California, in Spanish unless the employee requests it in English.⁴ The collective bargaining exemption still applies to H-2A workers, but only if the agreement provides wages at or above the federal H-2A program wage for the contract period.¹

Penalties for Getting It Wrong

Section 2810.5 itself does not set a specific dollar penalty for failing to provide or update the notice. That pushes enforcement into the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), which supplies a default civil penalty for Labor Code violations that lack their own. The PAGA default is $100 per aggrieved employee per pay period for an initial violation, and $200 per aggrieved employee per pay period when a court finds the conduct was malicious, fraudulent, or oppressive, or the employer had already been told the practice was unlawful.⁵ A reduced penalty of $50 per employee per pay period applies when the violation resulted from an isolated, nonrecurring event lasting no more than 30 consecutive days.

Those figures look modest for a single worker, but PAGA claims are representative. One aggrieved employee can sue on behalf of every current and former employee affected. For a company onboarding dozens of workers a month without proper notices, the exposure multiplies fast. The Labor Commissioner can also issue citations during workplace investigations, and missing notices tend to surface alongside other wage-and-hour violations.

Keep the Records

California law requires employers to keep personnel records for at least three years after an employee’s termination. Retain signed acknowledgment copies of every 2810.5 notice for that same period. These are your primary evidence of compliance during a state audit or in litigation, so store them with the employee’s other payroll and personnel files where they can be produced if the Department of Industrial Relations asks or a former employee files a claim.

1
California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 2810.5 – Obligations of Employer
2
California Department of Industrial Relations. Frequently Asked Questions – Wage Theft Protection Act of 2011 – Notice to Employees
3
Department of Industrial Relations. California Labor Code 2810.5 – Notice to Employee
4
California Department of Industrial Relations. Supplemental Notice to Employee – California Rights and Protections for H-2A Agricultural Workers
5
California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 2699