CA Paid Sick Leave Poster: Posting Rules, Notices, and Penalties

Every California employer must display the state’s paid sick leave poster in a conspicuous spot at each workplace, give each new hire an individual written notice of their sick leave rights, and show the available sick leave balance on every pay stub. The poster comes free from the Labor Commissioner, and skipping any of these three pieces can trigger penalties that stack for each affected employee.

Who Has to Post It

The requirement reaches almost every business operating in California. If you employ anyone who works 30 or more days within a year of starting, you are covered, no matter how small the company.¹ Part-time, temporary, and per diem workers count. The narrow exceptions apply mainly to certain employees covered by qualifying collective bargaining agreements.

Where the Poster Goes

The poster must be displayed in a conspicuous place at each workplace location.² Break rooms, near time clocks, or wherever you already keep the rest of your labor law notices all work. Employees should be able to read it during a normal workday without having to ask.

The Labor Commissioner publishes the poster in English, Spanish, Korean, Tagalog, Chinese (Simplified), and Vietnamese.¹ If a significant part of your workforce speaks one of those languages, posting the translated version alongside the English one lines up with California’s broader rule that employment information be communicated in the language you normally use with employees.

Remote and Hybrid Workforces

A physical poster on a break room wall does not reach an employee working from a kitchen table. Federal Department of Labor guidance treats electronic posting as a supplement to hard copy, not a substitute, except when the entire workforce is fully remote, all employees customarily receive information electronically, and all have ready access to the electronic posting at all times.³ For hybrid teams, keep the physical poster up at the workplace and distribute the poster electronically to remote staff.

Practical delivery matters. Email the poster or put it on the company intranet somewhere employees can actually find it, and tell them where it lives. The federal guidance is clear that an electronic notice has to be just as effective as a physical one.³

What the Poster Must Say

Labor Code section 247 requires the poster to cover four things:²

Employees are entitled to earn, request, and use paid sick days.
Sick leave accrues at no less than one hour for every 30 hours worked, and employees can use at least five days or 40 hours per year, whichever is greater.⁴
The conditions for taking sick leave, including personal illness, care of a family member, preventive care, and the other purposes the statute allows.
Retaliation is prohibited, and employees can file a complaint with the Labor Commissioner if the law is violated.

The five-day figure is the key update. SB 616 raised the minimum entitlement from three days or 24 hours to five days or 40 hours effective January 1, 2024, and the Labor Commissioner revised the poster to match.¹ Any poster still showing three days is out of date and non-compliant, even if your internal policy is more generous.

Where to Get the Current Poster

The Labor Commissioner’s Office produces the poster and offers it as a free download through the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.⁵ The English version and the available translations sit on the DLSE’s paid sick leave page.¹ Third-party vendors sell laminated all-in-one compliance posters that bundle every required California notice, but the state itself charges nothing for this one.

Check back periodically. When the law changes, the poster changes, and you are responsible for displaying the current revision.

The Two Notices the Poster Does Not Replace

Posting alone will not put you in compliance. California also requires an individual written notice at hire and an ongoing balance disclosure on pay stubs.

Written Notice at Hire

Each new employee must receive an individual written notice of their sick leave rights when they start.⁵ This lives inside the broader Wage Theft Prevention Act notice under Labor Code section 2810.5, which also covers pay rates, pay dates, and the workers’ compensation carrier.⁶

The sick leave portion has to tell the employee that they can earn and use sick leave, that they can request it, that they are protected from retaliation, and that they can file a complaint with the Labor Commissioner if the law is broken.⁶ Give it in the language you normally use with that employee. The Labor Commissioner publishes a template that satisfies these requirements in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Chinese.⁷ If information on the notice changes later, provide an updated notice within seven calendar days unless the change already appears on a timely wage statement.

Sick Leave Balance on Every Pay Stub

Every pay stub, or a separate written document issued on the same payday, has to show the employee’s currently available paid sick leave.¹ Employers who offer unlimited paid sick leave or unlimited PTO can simply write “unlimited” on the wage statement.

This is the piece employers miss most often. The poster goes up, the hire packet gets handed out, and then the balance line on payroll never gets configured. Most payroll platforms handle it automatically once the sick leave policy is set up, but a manual or bare-bones system needs the step added deliberately.

Recordkeeping

You have to keep records of how many paid sick days each employee accrued and used, and retain them for at least three years.¹ Electronic storage is fine as long as employees can access their own records. If the Labor Commissioner opens an investigation and you cannot produce these records, the law presumes the employee’s version of accrual and use is correct, and you have to rebut it.

You do not have to ask employees why they are taking sick leave, and you do not have to record the reason. Only accrual and usage amounts.¹

Penalties for Getting It Wrong

The Labor Commissioner enforces these obligations, and the penalty structure separates the different ways an employer can fall short:⁸

Withholding sick days costs three times the dollar amount withheld, or $250, whichever is greater, capped at $4,000.
If a violation causes discharge or other injury to the employee, add $50 per day the violation continued, also capped at $4,000.
The Labor Commissioner can charge the employer up to $50 per day per affected employee to cover investigation and enforcement costs, paid to the state.
The Labor Commissioner or the Attorney General can sue and recover back pay, reinstatement, liquidated damages, and reasonable attorney’s fees.

There is one narrow safe harbor. An isolated, unintentional payroll or written notice error that amounts to a clerical mistake about accrual or available leave will not draw penalties.⁸ An employer relying on that defense has to show the mistake was truly accidental and was corrected. Systematic failure to post, or a pattern of skipping the hire notice, does not qualify.

Penalties multiply across employees. An employer who never puts the poster up, never gives the hire notice, and never adds the sick leave balance to pay stubs across a workforce of twenty is looking at a stack of separate violations, each with its own calculation.

1
California Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave Frequently Asked Questions
2
California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 247
3
United States Department of Labor. Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2020-7
4
California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 246
5
California Department of Industrial Relations. Healthy Workplace Healthy Family Act of 2014 (AB 1522)
6
California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 2810.5
7
Department of Industrial Relations. California Labor Code 2810.5 – Notice to Employee
8
California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 248.5