HR guides for California employers

What makes California different

For most California employers, state law — not federal — is the operative rule, and it is more protective at nearly every turn. Treat federal law as the floor and California as the answer.

• The obligations start at five employees, not fifteen. FEHA anti-discrimination, CFRA's 12 weeks of job-protected leave, pregnancy disability leave and mandatory harassment-prevention training all attach at 5+ for private employers — and all four reach public employers (the state, cities, and other political/civil subdivisions of the state) at any size under the same FEHA employer definition. For a 30-person employer the leave answer is CFRA, not FMLA.
• Overtime is daily, not just weekly. Over 8 hours in a day triggers overtime and over 12 triggers double time — a structure no other state we cover uses.
• Final pay is immediate on an involuntary termination. Labor Code §§201–203, and it must include accrued unused vacation or PTO whenever a contract or employer policy provides for paid vacations (§227.3). Waiting-time penalties accrue daily where the failure to pay is willful.
• PAGA turns a paperwork error into representative exposure. A defective wage statement is not just a §226 problem; it is a potential claim on behalf of every similarly-situated employee.

California is also the only state we cover with its own mini-WARN Act — Cal-WARN reaches employers at 75 employees rather than the federal 100, and SB 617 expanded what the notice must say for notices given on or after January 1, 2026. Non-competes are void, and worker classification runs on the ABC test (AB 5; Lab. Code §2775).