California Publishes New Wage Theft Notice Reflecting Requirement to Notify Employees of Disaster Declarations

Quick Hits

• California Labor Code Section 2810.5 requires that employers provide nonexempt employees with certain information regarding pay rates, sick leave, and other matters.
• The revised California Labor Code Section 2810.5 Wage Theft Notice includes a disclosure section for information regarding any federal or state emergency or disaster declaration.
• The revised Wage Theft Notice also includes an updated paid sick leave disclosure to reflect the increase in California’s paid sick leave entitlement to forty hours or five days.

The revised California Labor Code Section 2810.5 Wage Theft Notice reflects changes made through California Assembly Bill (AB) 636, which Governor Gavin Newsom signed on October 4, 2023. The amended Section 2810.5 requires employers as of January 1, 2024, to provide written notice to employees of the existence of a federal or state disaster declaration. It also reflects recent changes to California’s paid sick leave law.

Labor Code Section 2810.5 Wage Theft Notice

California Labor Code Section 2810.5 requires that employers provide nonexempt employees with written notice regarding their pay rates, designated paydays, applicable overtime rates, and other wage information. The notice also must include the employer’s “doing business as” name(s).

Employers must provide the written notice at time of hire and within seven days of a change, if the change in employees’ pay stubs for the following pay period does not list the change. Employers must further provide the notice in the language they normally use to communicate employment-related information to the employee, through translated notices provided by the California Labor Commissioner’s Office.

Employers may use their own forms to provide notice or use the DIR’s “Notice to Employee Labor Code Section 2810.5,” which satisfies Section 2810.5.

The Revised Section 2810.5 Wage Theft Notice

Key changes to the Labor Code Section 2810.5 Wage Theft Notice include

• updates to the paid sick leave portion of the notice to reflect the increase in mandatory paid sick leave to forty hours or five days made through Senate Bill (SB) 616, which the governor signed in October 2023; and
• a new disclosure section for employers, required by newly amended Section 2810.5, to include information regarding any federal or state emergency or disaster declaration issued within thirty days before an employee’s first day of employment that applies to the county or counties in which the employee will work and that may impact the employee’s health and safety at work.

Exceptions to the Notice Requirements

An employer need not provide a Wage Theft Notice to employees covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement if: (1) the agreement expressly provides for the wages, hours of work, and working conditions of the employee; (2) the agreement provides premium wage rates for all overtime hours worked; and (3) the agreement provides a regular hourly rate of pay for those employees of not less than thirty percent more than the state minimum wage rate.

Employers also need not provide a Wage Theft Notice to exempt employees, meaning employees who are exempt from overtime payments by statute or California Industrial Welfare Commission (IWC) wage orders.

Next Steps

Employers may want to review their employee notices and paid sick leave policies in light of the recent changes to Section 2810.5 and California’s paid sick leave law. The DIR has provided its Labor Code section 2810.5 employee notice and an updated paid sick leave poster on the agency’s website.

Ogletree Deakins will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the California, Leaves of Absence, and Wage and Hour blogs.

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