California Wage Order 4: Coverage, Overtime, and Breaks

California Wage Order 4 is the state rule that sets pay, overtime, break, and recordkeeping standards for workers in professional, technical, clerical, mechanical, and similar occupations. As of January 1, 2026, it requires a minimum wage of $16.90 per hour for covered non-exempt employees and a salary of at least $70,304 per year for anyone an employer treats as exempt from overtime.¹ The order also governs daily overtime, meal and rest periods, reporting time pay, split shifts, uniforms and tools, pay stubs, and the penalties employers owe when they get any of it wrong.

Who the Order Covers and Who Is Exempt

Wage Order 4 reaches anyone working in a professional, technical, clerical, mechanical, or similar role, paid hourly, by the piece, or on commission.² Office administrators, IT workers, bookkeepers, paralegals, laboratory technicians, and mechanics are typical examples. If your job doesn’t fit squarely under one of the industry-specific wage orders, this is almost certainly the one that applies to you.

The order’s protections for minimum wage, overtime, and meal and rest periods do not apply to employees who qualify for an administrative, executive, or professional exemption. Being exempt requires passing two separate tests, and the employer carries the burden of proving both.

The salary test requires a monthly salary of at least two times the state minimum wage for full-time work. At the 2026 minimum of $16.90 per hour, that works out to $70,304 per year.¹ The number rises automatically every time the minimum wage does, so an exempt salary set right at the line one year will fall below it the next.

The duties test asks what you actually do. Your primary work must involve the exercise of discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance. A title like “manager” or “analyst” doesn’t settle it. An employee who spends most of the day on routine tasks is non-exempt no matter the salary, and failing either test means you’re entitled to every protection the order provides.

Minimum Wage, Reporting Time, and Split Shifts

Every non-exempt employee covered by the order must earn at least $16.90 per hour for all hours worked in 2026.³ If your city or county has a higher local minimum wage, your employer owes you the local rate. Certain industry-specific rates, such as the fast food minimum, may also set a higher floor.

Reporting Time Pay

If your employer schedules you for a shift and you show up, but you’re sent home early because there isn’t enough work, you must be paid for half of your scheduled shift at your regular rate, with a floor of two hours and a ceiling of four hours.⁴ Scheduled for six hours but let go after one? You get three hours of pay.

A second rule applies when your employer calls you back a second time the same day and gives you less than two hours of work. You’re owed two hours of pay at your regular rate for that second reporting. The only excuses that get the employer off the hook are narrow: threats to employees or property, failure of public utilities, or events outside the employer’s control like earthquakes. A slow business day doesn’t count.⁴

Split Shift Premium

A split shift is a workday broken into two or more segments separated by unpaid time longer than a meal break. Work a morning, take a three-hour unpaid gap, and come back for the evening, and that’s a split shift. You’re owed a premium of one hour of pay at the applicable minimum wage for that day.⁵

The premium shrinks by whatever amount your hourly rate already exceeds the minimum wage over the shift. An employee earning the $16.90 minimum gets the full premium. An employee at $17.90 gets nothing extra, because the dollar above minimum across the shift already covers it. Employees who live at the worksite are exempt from split shift premiums, and voluntarily picking up a second shift doesn’t trigger one.⁵

Overtime and Alternative Schedules

The standard workday is eight hours and the standard workweek is 40 hours. California’s overtime rules are stricter than federal law because they apply daily, not just weekly.⁶ The rates:

Over 8 hours in a day, up to 12: one and one-half times the regular rate.
Over 12 hours in a day: double the regular rate.
Over 40 hours in a week: one and one-half times the regular rate.
Seventh consecutive day worked, first 8 hours: one and one-half times the regular rate.
Seventh consecutive day, hours beyond 8: double the regular rate.

These tiers stack in your favor. Work 14 hours on a Tuesday and you earn time-and-a-half for hours 9 through 12 and double time for hours 13 and 14.⁶

An employer can adopt an alternative workweek schedule, such as four 10-hour days, without owing daily overtime, but the process is formal. The employer must hold a secret ballot election, two-thirds of affected employees must approve, and the employer must disclose in writing how the proposed schedule would affect wages, hours, and benefits before the vote. Under an approved schedule, shifts can run up to 10 hours without daily overtime; hours beyond the scheduled amount up to 12 pay at time-and-a-half, and anything beyond 12 pays double. Work beyond 40 hours in the week still triggers time-and-a-half, and each shift must be at least four hours.²

Makeup time is allowed but limited. An employee must submit a signed written request, and the makeup hours must be worked in the same week the time was missed. Hours beyond 11 in a day or 40 in the week still count as overtime, and the employer may approve requests but cannot encourage or solicit employees to use the option.²

Meal and Rest Periods

Missed and late breaks drive a large share of California wage claims, and the rules are tighter than many employers realize.

Meal Periods

An uninterrupted 30-minute meal period is required when you work more than five hours, and it must begin before the end of the fifth hour. If the shift is six hours or less, you and your employer can agree to skip it entirely.⁷

A second 30-minute meal period is required when the workday exceeds 10 hours. It can be waived by mutual agreement only if the total workday will not exceed 12 hours and the first meal period was not waived.⁷

During the break you must be relieved of all duties. If the employer requires you to stay on call or do any work, the whole period counts as hours worked and must be paid. On-duty meal periods are permitted only where the nature of the work genuinely prevents you from being relieved, and a written agreement must be in place that you can revoke at any time.⁷

Rest Periods

Employers must authorize and permit a paid 10-minute rest break for every four hours worked or major fraction of four hours. The Division of Labor Standards Enforcement treats anything over two hours as a major fraction, so a six-hour shift earns two rest breaks. Breaks should fall as close to the middle of each four-hour segment as practicable. If total daily work is less than three and a half hours, no rest period is required.⁸ Rest breaks are paid; you don’t clock out.

Premium Pay for Missed Breaks

A non-compliant meal period costs the employer one additional hour of pay at your regular rate for that workday. A missed rest period costs another hour. Miss both on the same day and you’re owed two hours of premium pay in addition to your regular wages.⁷

Uniforms, Tools, and Suitable Seating

When an employer requires a uniform as a condition of employment, the employer must provide and maintain it. “Uniform” covers any distinctive clothing or accessories of a specific design or color, so required branded shirts or a specific outfit you wouldn’t normally wear qualify. Deducting uniform costs or dry cleaning charges from your pay isn’t allowed.

Tools and equipment required for the job must also be provided and maintained by the employer. The one exception: employees earning at least twice the minimum wage can be required to supply their own hand tools customarily used in the trade. Apprentices registered under the State Division of Apprenticeship Standards are never required to supply their own tools. The employer may require a reasonable deposit for furnished items, must issue a receipt, and can never deduct for normal wear and tear.²

Suitable seats must be provided when the nature of the work reasonably permits sitting. When the job requires standing, the employer still must place an adequate number of seats in reasonable proximity so employees can sit when doing so doesn’t interfere with duties.²

Pay Stubs and Recordkeeping

Every payday, your employer must give you an itemized written pay stub showing gross wages earned, total hours worked, all deductions, net wages, the pay period dates, the hourly rates in effect, and the hours worked at each rate. The statement must include the employer’s legal name and address, plus either the last four digits of your Social Security number or an employee ID number.⁹

An employer that knowingly and intentionally fails to provide a compliant wage statement owes $50 for the first violation and $100 per employee for each subsequent pay period, capped at $4,000. Refusing to let a current or former employee inspect or copy pay records costs $750 per violation.⁹

Behind the pay stub, the employer must keep payroll records showing daily hours worked and wages paid for each employee, kept for at least three years at a central California location or at the worksite.¹⁰ Records must include name, address, occupation, and Social Security number; daily hours, rates, and total wages per pay period; the start and end time of each meal period; and the value of any non-cash compensation. You and your authorized representatives have the right to inspect those records.¹¹ The order itself must be posted in an area frequented by employees.²

Penalties and How to Enforce Your Rights

When an employer willfully fails to pay all wages owed at termination or resignation, your wages continue to accrue as a penalty at the same daily rate until paid, up to a maximum of 30 calendar days. For a worker earning $200 per day, that’s up to $6,000 on top of the unpaid wages. The penalty applies whether you were fired or quit.

You can file a wage claim with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, also called the Labor Commissioner’s Office, which will investigate and may hold a hearing. You can also file a civil lawsuit. Under the Private Attorneys General Act, you can additionally pursue penalties on behalf of yourself and other affected workers for Labor Code violations.

One category of unpaid time trips up employers and workers alike. Travel between worksites during the workday is compensable. So are mandatory meetings and training sessions, unless all four of these conditions are met: the session is outside normal hours, truly voluntary, unrelated to the job, and no work is performed.¹² Mandatory safety training or staff meetings treated as unpaid create overtime violations that often surface only when a claim is filed.

1
Department of Industrial Relations. California’s Minimum Wage Set to Increase to $16.90 Per Hour
2
Department of Industrial Relations. Industrial Welfare Commission Order 4-2001
3
Department of Industrial Relations. Minimum Wage
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Department of Industrial Relations. Reporting Time Pay
5
Department of Industrial Relations. Split Shift
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Department of Industrial Relations. Overtime
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Department of Industrial Relations. Meal Periods
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Department of Industrial Relations. Rest Periods/Lactation Accommodation
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California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 226
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California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 1174
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Department of Industrial Relations. Personnel Files and Records
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U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 22 – Hours Worked Under the Fair Labor Standards Act