California Employment Law

There is no legal requirement in California that an employer provides its employees with either paid or unpaid vacation time. However, if an employer does have an established policy, practice, or agreement to provide paid vacation, then certain restrictions are placed on the employer as to how it fulfills its obligation to provide vacation pay. Under California law, earned vacation time is considered wages, and vacation time is earned, or vests, as labor is performed.

An employer can place a reasonable cap on vacation benefits that prevents an employee from earning vacation over a certain amount of hours. And, unless otherwise stipulated by a collective bargaining agreement, upon termination of employment all earned and unused vacation must be paid to the employee at his or her final rate of pay. In California, because paid vacation is a form of wages, it is earned as labor is performed. An employer’s vacation plan may provide for the earning of vacation benefits on a day-by-day, by the week, by the pay period, or some other period basis.

Effective Jan. 1, 2023, the state’s hourly minimum is $15.50.

The above information on minimum wages might not be up to date & subject to change. Kindly access the DOL website for the current rates.

Public and private employers are covered by California’s Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act. Employees, including part-time, per diem, and temporary employees, are eligible for paid sick leave if they work in California for the same employer for at least 30 days within a year after beginning employment. Employees accrue at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Employees who are exempt from overtime requirements accrue paid sick leave based on a 40-hour workweek. New employees can use accrued paid sick leave beginning on their 90th day of employment. Employees can determine how much paid sick leave they need to use, but employers can set reasonable minimum increments (up to two hours) for using this leave. Employers are not required to allow employees to accrue more than 48 hours or six days of total paid sick leave if their right to accrue and use this leave is not unlawfully limited.

Effective January 1, 2023, employees would be allowed to take time off to care for a “designated person” under the existing family rights law and paid sick leave law. In accordance with the amendment, an eligible employee will also be able to use leave to take care of a “designated person.”  A designated person is defined  as “any individual related by blood or whose association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.” Employees are authorized to limit an employee to one “designated person” per 12-month period. 

Public and private employers are covered by California’s Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act, are required to provide employees with paid sick days for the following purposes:

• Diagnosis, care, or treatment of an existing health condition of, or preventive care for, an employee or an employee’s family member.
• For an employee who is a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.

California law requires that employees who work an average of at least 20 hours per week may take up to ten days of unpaid leave while their spouse is on leave from military deployment. To be eligible for this leave, the employee’s spouse must be a member of the Armed Forces of the United States (including National Guard or Reserves) on leave from deployment during a period of military conflict in an area designated as a combat theater or combat zone. Under California law, “spouse” is defined to include a registered domestic partner.

All employers must provide a leave of up to four months, as needed, for the period(s) of time an employee is actually disabled because of pregnancy, even if an employer has a policy or practice that provides less than four months of leave for other similarly situated, temporarily disabled employees. Pregnancy disability leave does not need to be taken in one continuous period of time.  Employees are eligible for up to four months of leave per pregnancy, not per year.

For employees who work more or less than 40 hours per week, or who work on variable work schedules, the number of working days that constitutes four months is calculated on a pro-rata or proportional basis. If a holiday falls within a week taken as pregnancy disability leave, the week is nevertheless counted as a week of pregnancy disability leave.

Pursuant to Labor Code Section 1030 every employer, including the state and any political subdivision, must provide a reasonable amount of break time to accommodate an employee desiring to express breast milk for the employee’s infant child. The break time shall, if possible, run concurrently with any break time already provided to the employee.

Employers with 5 or more employees within a 75-mile radius are required to provide up to 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid leave to new parents for the purpose of bonding with a newborn child. The employee must have worked at least 1,250 hours of service during the 12-month period in order to take up to 12 weeks of paid family leave. The purpose of the leave is to allow an employee time to bond with a new child within one year of the child’s birth, adoption, or foster care placement.

Also as per the amendment, qualified employees will be entitled to take leave to care for the serious health condition of a grandparent, grandchild, or sibling in addition to the current requirement covering an employee’s parent, child, spouse, or domestic partner.

Each eligible parent is entitled to up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for a qualifying reason.

Employees are entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year. This applies when you care for a parent, spouse, or child who is seriously ill or own illness.

California employers with 5 or more employees will be required to provide up to 5 days of protected bereavement leave to employees for the death of a family member, including a domestic partner or extended family member.

Eligibility and Requirement – An employee is eligible for bereavement leave once they have been employed for at least 30 days prior to the commencement of leave. A qualifying family member includes a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, domestic partner, or parent-in-law.

The 5 days’ leave can be taken consecutively or separately within 3 months of the family member’s date of death.

Documentation – The employer may request the employee to provide documentation of the death of the family member including a death certificate, published obituary, or written verification of death, burial, or memorial services from a mortuary, funeral home, burial society, crematorium, religious institution, or governmental agency within 30 days from the first day of the leave.

An employer who employs 25 or more employees working at the same location shall not discharge or in any way discriminate against an employee who is a parent of one or more children of the age to attend kindergarten or grades 1 to 12, inclusive, or a licensed child care provider, for taking off up to 40 hours each year, for the purpose of either of the following child-related activities:

• • • To find, enroll, or re-enroll his or her child in a school or with a licensed child care provider, or to participate in activities of the school or licensed child care provider of his or her child, if the employee, prior to taking the time off, gives reasonable notice to the employer of the planned absence of the employee. Time off pursuant to this subparagraph shall not exceed 8 hours in any calendar month of the year.
    • To address a child care provider or school emergency, if the employee gives notice to the employer.