California Labor Code 2810.5 Notice Requirements

California Labor Code Section 2810.5 requires nearly every private-sector employer to give a new hire a standalone written notice covering pay rate, payday, employer identity, workers’ compensation carrier, paid sick leave rights, and any active disaster declaration in the work county, delivered before the employee performs any work. The notice must be updated within seven calendar days of any change to the information it contains, with narrow exceptions. Getting the California Labor Code 2810.5 notice requirements wrong exposes the employer to per-employee, per-pay-period penalties under the Private Attorneys General Act.

What the Notice Must Contain

The statute lists ten categories of information. Employers can use the Labor Commissioner’s official template or build their own form, so long as every required element appears.¹

The employee’s rate of pay and how it’s calculated (hourly, salary, piece rate, commission, shift, day, week, or otherwise), along with any applicable overtime rates.²
Any meal or lodging allowances the employer claims as part of the minimum wage.
The employer’s designated regular payday.
The employer’s legal name and any “doing business as” names.
The physical address of the main office or principal place of business, plus a mailing address if different.
The employer’s telephone number.
The name, address, and telephone number of the workers’ compensation insurance carrier. The Labor Commissioner’s template also asks for the policy number, so include it if you use the official form.³
A statement that the employee may accrue and use paid sick leave, may request accrued paid sick leave, cannot be fired or retaliated against for using it, and has the right to file a complaint if the employer retaliates.²
Whether a federal or state emergency or disaster declaration applies to the employee’s work county (details below).
Any additional information the Labor Commissioner deems material and necessary.

The notice belongs on its own form. Don’t bury it inside an employee handbook or fold it into a longer employment agreement.

The Disaster Declaration Field

Assembly Bill 636 added a new item to the notice on January 1, 2024. The employer must disclose any federal or state emergency or disaster declaration that applies to the county where the employee will work, if the declaration was issued within 30 days before the employee’s first day and could affect their health or safety.² The updated official template includes a checkbox and a space to describe the declaration and its potential impact.³

Given California’s wildfire, earthquake, and flood activity, this comes up more often than employers expect. Check for an active declaration in the county of employment before onboarding anyone. The declaration may have been issued weeks earlier and dropped out of the news cycle, which makes this one of the easier fields to overlook.

Who Must Receive It

The notice goes to virtually every private-sector employee at hiring, full-time or part-time.² Three groups are excluded:

Direct employees of the state or a political subdivision such as a city, county, or special district.
Workers exempt from overtime pay under a statute or Industrial Welfare Commission wage order.
Workers under a collective bargaining agreement that expressly 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.¹

There’s no company-wide exemption. If some workers qualify for an exclusion and others don’t, you owe the notice to everyone who doesn’t.

Timing, Language, and Delivery

The notice must be provided at the time of hiring, before the employee performs any work.¹ Deliver it in the language the employer normally uses to communicate employment-related information to that employee.² The Labor Commissioner posts translated templates in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Tagalog.

You can deliver a paper copy or use electronic delivery, provided the system lets the employee acknowledge receipt and print a copy. Either way, get a signed, dated acknowledgment. That signature is your proof of compliance in a Department of Industrial Relations audit or a wage claim.

Updating After a Change

When any information on the notice changes (a pay raise, a new workers’ comp carrier, a different payday), the employer has seven calendar days to give the employee a written update.³ The clock starts on the date of the change, not the date the employer notices it.

Two exceptions let the employer skip a separate written update. First, if every change is already reflected on a timely wage statement issued under Labor Code Section 226. Second, if the changes appear in another writing the law already requires, delivered within seven days of the change.¹ Many employers find it easier to issue a fresh notice than to work out whether a pay stub technically covers every changed element.

Extra Content for Temp Agencies and H-2A Workers

A temporary staffing agency (as defined in Labor Code Section 201.3) must add information about the client company where the employee will actually work: the client’s legal name, main office physical address, mailing address if different, and telephone number.²

Employees admitted under the federal H-2A agricultural visa program receive an additional supplemental notice covering California-specific rights not addressed on the standard form. The employer must provide it no later than the worker’s first day on the job in California, and in Spanish unless the employee requests English.⁴ It covers required wage rates, piece-rate rules, pay frequency, prohibited deductions, and workplace safety obligations specific to agricultural work.

Penalties for Getting It Wrong

Section 2810.5 itself does not set a dollar penalty for failing to provide or update the notice. Enforcement moves to the Private Attorneys General Act, which sets default civil penalties for Labor Code violations that lack their own penalty. Under PAGA, the default is $100 per aggrieved employee per pay period for an initial violation, and $200 per aggrieved employee per pay period when a court finds the conduct was malicious, fraudulent, or oppressive, or the employer had previously been told the practice was unlawful.⁵ A reduced penalty of $50 per employee per pay period applies if the violation resulted from an isolated, nonrecurring event lasting no more than 30 consecutive days.

Those numbers look modest for one employee. PAGA claims are representative actions, though, so a single aggrieved worker can sue on behalf of every current and former employee affected. For a company that onboards dozens of workers a month without proper notices, exposure multiplies quickly. The Labor Commissioner can also issue citations during workplace investigations, and missing notices tend to surface alongside other wage-and-hour violations.

Recordkeeping

California requires employers to keep personnel records for at least three years after termination. Hold signed acknowledgment copies of every 2810.5 notice for that same period, since they are your primary evidence of compliance during a state audit or litigation. Store them with the employee’s other payroll and personnel files so they’re accessible when the Department of Industrial Relations requests them or a former employee files a claim.

1
California Department of Industrial Relations. Frequently Asked Questions – Wage Theft Protection Act of 2011 – Notice to Employees
2
California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 2810.5 – Obligations of Employer
3
Department of Industrial Relations. California Labor Code 2810.5 – Notice to Employee
4
California Department of Industrial Relations. Supplemental Notice to Employee – California Rights and Protections for H-2A Agricultural Workers
5
California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 2699