DLSE NTE: California Notice to Employee Contents, Timing, and Penalties

The DLSE-NTE is the Notice to Employee that California employers must give most new hires under Labor Code section 2810.5. It’s a one-page written disclosure of pay rates, the employer’s legal identity, workers’ compensation coverage, paid sick leave rights, and, since 2024, any recent emergency or disaster declaration affecting the worksite. The Division of Labor Standards Enforcement publishes an official template, and using it is the simplest way to make sure nothing required gets left off.

What the Notice Must Contain

The form pulls together three categories of information.

Pay

State the rate of pay and how it is calculated: hourly, salary, piece, commission, or another basis. If overtime applies, list the overtime rate. Identify any allowances claimed against the minimum wage, such as meal or lodging credits, and name the regular payday.¹

Employer Identity

Give the employer’s full legal name along with any fictitious business names. Include the physical address of the main office or principal place of business, a mailing address if different, and a telephone number.¹

Workers’ Compensation

List the name, address, and telephone number of the workers’ compensation carrier.¹ The official template also has a field for the policy number.²

Paid Sick Leave

The sick leave disclosure is shorter than many employers expect. The notice must tell the worker that they may accrue and use paid sick leave, that they have the right to request and use it, that they cannot be terminated or retaliated against for using or requesting it, and that they can file a complaint if retaliation occurs.¹

Emergency or Disaster Declarations

As of January 1, 2024, the notice must also disclose any federal or state emergency or disaster declaration covering the county where the worker will be assigned, if the declaration was issued within 30 days before the employee’s first day on the job. This piece was added by AB 636.¹ Older templates don’t include this field, which is one reason to pull the current PDF each time.

When to Give It, and in What Language

Deliver the completed written notice at the time of hiring. A verbal walk-through of pay rates does not count. Write it in the language the employer normally uses with that worker for employment communications; if you give that employee instructions in Spanish, the notice should be in Spanish.¹

The statute doesn’t require the employee’s signature, but getting one is the cleanest way to prove delivery later. The official DLSE-NTE includes a signature line. File the signed copy in the personnel record.

When to Issue an Updated Notice

If any item on the original notice changes, the employer must notify the affected employee in writing within seven calendar days. That covers pay rate changes, a new workers’ compensation carrier, a shift in the employer’s legal name or address, and anything else listed on the form.¹

Two exceptions can take the place of a standalone update. No separate notice is needed if the change shows up on a timely wage statement issued under Labor Code section 226, so a raise reflected on the next pay stub takes care of itself. The same is true if the change is captured in another writing already required by law within seven days. A change like a new workers’ comp insurer, which won’t appear on a pay stub, still needs its own written notice.¹

Who Doesn’t Need to Receive It

Three categories of workers are outside the requirement:

Public employees of the state or any political subdivision, including cities, counties, and special districts.³
Employees exempt from overtime under statute or the Industrial Welfare Commission wage orders, including the executive, administrative, and professional classifications.³
Workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement, but only if the CBA expressly addresses wages, hours, and working conditions, provides premium pay for all overtime hours, and guarantees a regular hourly rate at least 30 percent above the state minimum wage.¹

With California’s minimum wage at $16.90 per hour as of January 1, 2026, a qualifying CBA has to guarantee roughly $21.97 per hour for the exemption to apply.⁴

What Happens If You Don’t Provide It

Section 2810.5 doesn’t attach its own penalty amount to a missing notice. The exposure is indirect but real. Without a signed notice, an employer has nothing to show the Labor Commissioner about what pay terms were agreed, which weakens the employer’s position in any wage claim. Missing notices also tend to travel with wage statement problems under Labor Code section 226, where a knowing and intentional violation lets an employee recover the greater of actual damages or $50 for the first pay period and $100 for each later one, up to $4,000, plus attorney’s fees.⁵ Filing a wage claim costs the worker nothing.

Where to Download the Current Form

The Labor Commissioner publishes the official DLSE-NTE as a downloadable PDF through the Department of Industrial Relations. The current version was revised in November 2023 and includes the disaster-declaration field.² Using the official template rather than a homemade version is the easiest way to avoid dropping a required field.

1
California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 2810.5 – Obligations of Employer
2
Department of Industrial Relations. Notice to Employee Labor Code 2810.5
3
Department of Industrial Relations. Wage Theft Prevention Act of 2011 – Notice to Employees
4
Department of Industrial Relations. Minimum Wage
5
California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 226