New-Hire Wage Notice Requirements in California

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Governing law and coverage

Labor Code § 2810.5 is the general California new-hire wage-notice rule for private employment. Its definition removes three employee groups from the ordinary requirement:

An employee who is exempt from the payment of overtime wages by statute or the wage orders of the Industrial Welfare Commission.

The collective-bargaining exception requires an agreement that expressly covers wages, hours, and working conditions, premium overtime rates, and a regular hourly rate at least 30 percent above the state minimum wage. It is not a blanket union-workforce exception.

Delivery timing and form

The statute requires the employer, “[a]t the time of hiring,” to provide each covered employee a written notice. The Labor Commissioner says the notice may be delivered electronically only through a system that lets the worker acknowledge receipt and print a copy.

The agency also says the notice may accompany an offer letter or employment agreement, but must remain its own form. The employee should not have to assemble the required information from several documents or handbook pages.

Pay rate, basis, and overtime

The notice must state:

The rate or rates of pay and basis thereof, whether paid by the hour, shift, day, week, salary, piece, commission, or otherwise, including any rates for overtime, as applicable.

“Rate or rates” matters when the employee will work at more than one rate. The Labor Commissioner says all applicable rates belong on the notice; a clearly referenced attachment can carry a rate schedule when needed.

Hours, payday, allowances, and deductions

California requires the regular payday and any meal or lodging allowance claimed as part of minimum wage. The ordinary § 2810.5(a)(1) list does not add normal hours, the time or place of payment, or planned deductions as separate fields.

The acknowledgment on the state form does not itself create the separate voluntary written agreement needed to credit meals or lodging toward minimum wage. Signing confirms receipt, not agreement to the allowance.

Employer identity, insurance, and other contents

The ordinary notice identifies the legal employer and every doing-business-as name, the main-office address and a different mailing address, the employer's telephone number, and the workers' compensation carrier's name, address, and telephone number.

It also states specified paid-sick-leave rights and whether a federal or state emergency or disaster declaration was issued within 30 days before the first workday, applies to the work county, and may affect the employee's health and safety. A temporary-services employer generally adds the name and contact information of the client entity for which the employee will work.

Language, template, and acknowledgment

Section 2810.5 requires the notice “in the language the employer normally uses to communicate employment-related information to the employee.” The Labor Commissioner must publish compliant templates, but an employer may develop its own notice if it includes every required item, including information the Commissioner placed on the template.

The ordinary statute does not require the employee to sign. DLSE describes the acknowledgment on its form as optional and says the employer should still give the notice when an employee refuses to sign.

Change notice and record retention

California's seven-day clock runs after the change, not before it:

An employer shall notify their employees in writing of any changes to the information set forth in the notice within seven calendar days after the time of the changes.

A separate change notice is unnecessary when all changes appear on a timely § 226 wage statement or another writing required by law within seven days. The section does not state a notice-copy retention period. The Labor Commissioner nevertheless tells employers to keep a record of notices they provide.

Enforcement, remedies, and local overlays

The notice is not waivable. Section 2804 says any employee agreement to waive the benefits of the article containing § 2810.5 “is null and void.”

Section 2810.5 itself states no notice-specific dollar penalty, damages amount, or private-action formula. This page therefore does not assign a fixed remedy to a notice-only violation. City or county wage-notice rules may add duties, but local law is outside this state-table survey.

What trips people up

H-2A employees have a separate statutory workflow. Beginning with work in California or work for a new H-2A employer, the employer must give the Labor-Commissioner template in Spanish on that first workday. Under § 2810.5(d), use of that template is mandatory. The employee may also request it in English.

A staffing assignment can change the notice. A temporary-services employer generally lists the client entity at hire. If a later placement changes that information, the seven-day change process applies unless one of the statutory writing exceptions covers it.

Common questions

What if the employee has several pay rates?

List every applicable rate and its basis. DLSE permits a clearly referenced attachment when a rate sheet is needed, but the notice must tell the employee when the different rates apply.

Does signing the notice approve meal or lodging credits?

No. The state form says the signature only acknowledges receipt and does not serve as the separate voluntary written agreement required for a meal or lodging credit.

Must the client business give another notice to a staffing-agency employee?

DLSE says no separate client notice is required when the staffing agency gives the required notice and includes the client information. The rule identifies the work entity; it does not by itself decide which entity has wage liability.

Statutes and sources

• Cal. Lab. Code § 2810.5(a)(1)-(2) — timing, ordinary contents, language, and templates.

  At the time of hiring, an employer shall provide to each employee a written notice, in the language the employer normally uses to communicate employment-related information to the employee, containing the following information: (A) The rate or rates of pay and basis thereof, whether paid by the hour, shift, day, week, salary, piece, commission, or otherwise, including any rates for overtime, as applicable.

Official source: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=2810.5.&lawCode=LAB (accessed 2026-07-22) - Cal. Lab. Code § 2810.5(a)(3) — temporary-services additions.

If the employer is a temporary services employer, as defined in Section 201.3, the notice described in paragraph (1) shall also include the name, the physical address of the main office, the mailing address if different from the physical address of the main office, and the telephone number of the legal entity for whom the employee will perform work, and any other information the Labor Commissioner deems material and necessary.

Official source: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=2810.5.&lawCode=LAB (accessed 2026-07-22) - Cal. Lab. Code § 2810.5(a)(4)(B)(i), (d) — H-2A notice timing and the required agency template.

An employer shall provide the notice required by subparagraph (A) in Spanish to the H-2A employee on the day that the H-2A employee begins work in the state or on the first day that the employee begins work for another H-2A employer.

Official source: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=2810.5.&lawCode=LAB (accessed 2026-07-22) - Cal. Lab. Code § 2810.5(b) — changes.

An employer shall notify their employees in writing of any changes to the information set forth in the notice within seven calendar days after the time of the changes.

Official source: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=2810.5.&lawCode=LAB (accessed 2026-07-22) - Cal. Lab. Code § 2810.5(c) — employee exclusions.

An employee who is exempt from the payment of overtime wages by statute or the wage orders of the Industrial Welfare Commission.

Official source: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=2810.5.&lawCode=LAB (accessed 2026-07-22) - Cal. Lab. Code § 2804 — nonwaiver.

Any contract or agreement, express or implied, made by any employee to waive the benefits of this article or any part thereof, is null and void.

Official source: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=LAB&sectionNum=2804. (accessed 2026-07-22) - California Labor Commissioner FAQ for Labor Code § 2810.5 — agency guidance on a separate form, electronic delivery, optional acknowledgment, multiple rates, and recordkeeping.

No, employers can develop their own notices so long as they contain all the information required by the law, including all the information requested on DLSE's template. The template includes all required information, including that which the Labor Commissioner deems material and necessary for purposes of the notice. Employers should keep a record of the notices provided to their employees.

Official source: https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/FAQs-NoticetoEmployee.html (accessed 2026-07-22) - California Labor Commissioner DLSE-NTE form for Labor Code § 2810.5 — current state form and acknowledgment text.

The employee's signature on this notice merely constitutes acknowledgement of receipt.

Official source: https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/lc_2810.5_notice.pdf (accessed 2026-07-22)