California Wage Theft Protection Act: Notice Rules and Penalties

The notice requirements under California’s Wage Theft Protection Act obligate employers to give most non-exempt private-sector employees a written notice at the time of hire that spells out pay rate, payday, employer identity, workers’ compensation carrier, paid sick leave rights, and any recent emergency declaration affecting the worksite. The rule lives in Labor Code Section 2810.5, and skipping it or filling it out incorrectly exposes the employer to enforcement by the Labor Commissioner and civil penalties under the Private Attorneys General Act.¹

What the Notice Must Include

Section 2810.5 lists specific items that have to appear on the notice. Leaving any of them out creates a compliance problem, even if the rest of the form is accurate.¹

Your rate of pay and the basis for it, whether hourly, salaried, piece rate, commission, or otherwise, along with any applicable overtime rate.
Any allowances the employer claims against the minimum wage for meals or lodging, with the specific amounts.
The regular payday designated by the employer.
The employer’s full legal name, including any “doing business as” names. This matters when the brand on the door is not the legal entity that signs your paychecks.
The physical address of the employer’s main office or principal place of business, a separate mailing address if one exists, and a telephone number.
The name, address, and phone number of the employer’s workers’ compensation insurance carrier.
A statement that you may accrue and use paid sick leave, may request accrued paid sick leave, cannot be fired or retaliated against for using it, and have the right to file a complaint if the employer retaliates.
Notice of any federal or state emergency or disaster declaration covering the county where you will work, if it was issued within 30 days before your first day.

The paid sick leave language and the emergency declaration item were added by amendments after the original 2012 law. Employers still using older notice templates sometimes miss them. The Labor Commissioner can also require additional information deemed necessary, which is one reason the safest practice is to use the state’s current official form.

The Official Template

The Labor Commissioner publishes a standardized “Notice to Employee” form that tracks every item Section 2810.5 requires.² Employers are not required to use that exact form, but a custom version carries the risk of leaving out a required field, especially because the statute has been amended several times.

Who Gets the Notice and Who Doesn’t

The requirement applies to non-exempt employees in the private sector, meaning workers entitled to minimum wage and overtime protections under California law. If you earn an hourly wage or are otherwise eligible for overtime, you should get the notice at the start of the job.¹

Three groups fall outside the rule. Exempt executive, administrative, and professional employees who meet both the duties test and the salary threshold are not covered; the federal salary threshold is currently $684 per week, or $35,568 per year.³ Public sector employees of the state, a county, or a city do not receive this notice. And workers under a valid collective bargaining agreement are exempt if the agreement covers wages, hours, and working conditions, provides premium overtime rates, and guarantees a regular hourly rate at least 30 percent above the state minimum wage.⁴

With California’s minimum wage at $16.90 per hour as of January 1, 2026, the union carve-out kicks in at roughly $21.97 per hour.⁵ A union contract paying below that number does not relieve the employer of the notice requirement.

Language the Notice Must Be In

The notice has to be written in the language the employer normally uses to communicate employment-related information to the employee. If your instructions, policies, and memos usually come in Spanish, the notice should also be in Spanish.⁴ The Department of Industrial Relations publishes its official template in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Tagalog. Handing an English-only notice to a worker your company otherwise communicates with in another language creates a compliance risk even if every required item is on the page.

Extra Requirement for Temp Agency Hires

If you are hired through a temporary staffing agency, the notice has to include the name, physical and mailing addresses, and phone number of the client company where you will actually perform the work, not just the agency’s information.¹ The point is to make it possible for temp workers to identify who is responsible when wage problems come up. Security companies licensed by the Department of Consumer Affairs that solely provide security services are the one exception.

When the Notice Must Be Given and Updated

The employer must give you the notice at the time of hire, before you begin working. The statute does not explicitly require a signed acknowledgment, but employers who ask for one have easier proof of compliance if a dispute arises.

When any information on the notice changes during your employment, the employer has seven calendar days to give you an updated written notice. Two alternatives satisfy that duty: reflecting the change on a timely wage statement that complies with Labor Code Section 226, or providing the information through another legally required writing within the same seven-day window.¹ Update failures often happen with quiet changes like a switch in workers’ compensation carrier. Nobody’s pay is affected, but the missed update is still a technical violation.

Penalties for Getting It Wrong

An employee who never received the notice, or received one with missing or false information, can file a complaint with the Labor Commissioner’s Office, also called the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement. The Labor Commissioner can investigate and issue citations for Labor Code violations.⁴

Section 2810.5 itself does not set a specific civil penalty for a notice violation, which is where the Private Attorneys General Act comes in. Under PAGA, an employee can bring a civil action on behalf of themselves and other affected workers for Labor Code violations that lack their own penalty. The default PAGA amount is $100 per aggrieved employee per pay period for an initial violation and $200 per aggrieved employee per pay period when the employer has a prior finding against it or the conduct was malicious or fraudulent.⁶ A reduced $50 penalty applies when the violation was isolated and nonrecurring. Across a workforce and multiple pay periods, the numbers move quickly.

Before filing a PAGA lawsuit, the employee has to give written notice to the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and the employer, then wait 65 calendar days. If the agency declines to investigate, the employee can proceed in court. Employers sometimes argue a notice violation is “curable” and that fixing the problem within the notice window blocks the PAGA claim, but courts have not uniformly accepted that defense for every kind of 2810.5 violation.

A missed hiring notice also tends to travel with pay stub problems. Labor Code Section 226 requires every wage statement to show gross wages, total hours worked, all deductions, the pay period dates, the employer’s legal name and address, and all applicable hourly rates. An employee who suffers injury from a knowing and intentional violation can recover the greater of actual damages or $50 for the first violation and $100 for each subsequent pay period, up to $4,000, plus attorney’s fees.⁷ Employers that mishandle the initial notice often carry the same errors onto their pay stubs, and the pay stub side is usually where the real financial exposure sits.

What to Do if You Never Got One

Ask your employer or HR department in writing. A written request creates a record, and most employers hand the form over quickly once they realize it was skipped. Keep your offer letter, your pay stubs, and any messages you exchanged.

If the employer refuses, provides a form with false information, or retaliates against you for raising the issue, you can file a complaint with the Labor Commissioner’s Office online, by mail, or in person at any DLSE field office. The employer’s strongest defense is always a signed copy of a complete notice. Your strongest position is documentation showing they never gave you one.

1
California Legislative Information. California Labor Code LAB 2810.5
2
California Department of Industrial Relations. Notice to Employee (Labor Code Section 2810.5)
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption
4
Department of Industrial Relations. Wage Theft Protection Act of 2011 – Notice to Employees – Frequently Asked Questions
5
Department of Industrial Relations. Minimum Wage
6
California Legislative Information. California Labor Code Part 13 – PAGA
7
California Legislative Information. California Labor Code LAB 226