California WARN Notice Requirements: 60-Day Rules for Layoffs & Closures

Cal-WARN covers a “covered establishment” that has employed 75 or more people in the preceding 12 months. It is triggered by a:

• Mass layoff — 50 or more employees laid off in a 30-day period;
• Relocation — moving operations 100+ miles; or
• Termination/closure of the establishment.

Give written notice at least 60 days before the action to: the affected employees, the California EDD, the local workforce development board, and the chief elected official of the local government.

SB 617 (Stats. 2025, ch. 229) expanded what a Cal-WARN notice must contain. For notices given on or after January 1, 2026, a compliant notice must add all of the following to the information already required:

• A workforce-board coordination statement — whether you intend to coordinate services with the local workforce development board, another organization, or not at all — together with that board's email address and telephone number and the statutory rapid-response language (Lab. Code §1401(c), (c)(1)).
• CalFresh information — a description of the program, the helpline number, and a link to the program website (Lab. Code §1401(d)).
• The employer's own email address and telephone number (Lab. Code §1401(e)).
• And a duty that outlives the notice: if you elect to coordinate services, those services must actually be arranged within 30 days of the notice (Lab. Code §1401(c)(2)). Saying you will coordinate and then not doing so is its own failure.

A notice that meets the old content rules but omits these items is no longer compliant. If you have WARN notice templates written before 2026, they need updating.

Relocating a call center to a foreign country triggers Cal-WARN regardless of how much of the workforce is affected (Lab. Code §1409(b)). The consequence of skipping notice is unusually severe: the employer becomes ineligible for any direct or indirect state grant or state-guaranteed loan for five years, and cannot claim a tax credit for five taxable years (Lab. Code §1411(a)).

Cal-WARN's exceptions are narrower than employers usually assume. They cover:

• Project completion in industries under Wage Orders 11, 12, or 16 (motion picture; construction, drilling, logging, and mining) where employees were hired with the understanding that the work was limited to that project (Lab. Code §1400.5(g)(1)).
• Seasonal employment where employees were hired knowing the work was seasonal and temporary (Lab. Code §1400.5(g)(2)).
• Physical calamity or act of war (Lab. Code §1401).
• Actively seeking capital — only for a relocation or termination, only where the employer submits documentation and the Department of Industrial Relations determines that giving notice would have precluded obtaining the capital or business (Lab. Code §1402.5). This exception does not apply to a mass layoff.

Note what is not on this list: federal WARN's “unforeseeable business circumstances” defense has no direct Cal-WARN twin. Do not assume the federal exception carries over.

California's thresholds are lower than the federal WARN Act (29 U.S.C. §2101), which generally requires 100+ employees and larger loss numbers. If both apply, comply with each.

California is also the exception rather than the rule. Of the seven states we cover, it is the only one with a state mini-WARN Act at all — in Nevada, Texas, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Utah and Florida, federal WARN is the entire analysis. See the WARN notice requirements by state table for the side-by-side.

• A civil penalty of up to $500 per day, for each day of the violation.
• Back pay for each affected employee, calculated at the employee's final rate of compensation or their three-year average rate — whichever is higher.
• Medical expenses the employee incurred that an employee benefit plan would have covered.
• The liability period is the shorter of 60 days or half the number of days the employee worked for you — so a long-tenured workforce carries the full exposure.

Enforcement is not only through private suits: the Labor Commissioner may investigate an alleged violation and order temporary relief while an investigation or hearing is pending (Lab. Code §§1404, 1406).

• Count the rolling 30- and 90-day windows carefully — staggered cuts can aggregate into a covered mass layoff.
• Update any WARN notice template written before 2026 to carry the SB 617 content above.
• Do not plan around federal WARN's “unforeseeable business circumstances” defense — Cal-WARN has no direct equivalent. Work from the narrow exceptions listed above, with counsel.