Do I get paid if I’m sent home early in California?
The short answer
The rule in California
| Sent home early or not put to work | Paid for half your usual or scheduled day’s work, at least 2 hours and no more than 4, at your regular rate (never below minimum wage). |
|---|---|
| Second report in one day | If you’re required to report a second time and get less than 2 hours of work, you’re paid for 2 hours. |
| What counts as reporting | Showing up at the start of the shift, logging on remotely, or, as in a 2019 court case the Labor Commissioner cites, phoning the store two hours before the shift. |
| When it isn’t owed | Threats to employees or property, or civil authorities recommend closing; a utility or sewer failure; an Act of God or other cause outside the employer’s control. Also not owed on paid standby, or if your regular shift is under 2 hours. |
| Split shift premium | One hour at the state or local minimum wage, whichever is higher, each day your schedule is split by unpaid time the employer sets (not a meal or rest break). Pay above the minimum wage is credited against it. |
| On your pay stub | The split shift premium must be its own line, not lumped in with wages. |
“Each workday an employee is required to report to work, but is not put to work or is furnished with less than half of his or her usual or scheduled day's work, he or she must be paid for half the usual or scheduled day's work, but in no event for less than two hours nor more than four hours, at his or her regular rate of pay.” (California Labor Commissioner: reporting time pay FAQ)
What’s different in California
This rule comes from California’s wage orders, and Order 5 covers restaurants, bars, and similar places. The Labor Commissioner treats reporting time pay as wages. Being cut because it’s slow counts. So does being sent home because a manager didn’t like your work that day. If you leave on your own, for example to pick up a sick child, nothing extra is owed.
Split shifts are common on restaurant schedules. The Labor Commissioner’s own example is a worker on from 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. who comes back at 4:00 p.m. for dinner. The premium is one hour at the minimum wage ($16.90 statewide, or your city’s rate if it’s higher). Anything you earn above the minimum that day is credited against it, so the higher your hourly wage, the smaller the premium. If you pick up the second shift voluntarily, no premium is owed.
Neither payment counts toward overtime. The state’s formula for reporting time pay uses your regular rate of pay; tips aren’t part of it.
Official sources
Last verified
. Checked the agency pages linked above.
Still open: The split-shift page says pay above the minimum wage is credited toward the premium, but it doesn’t say whether tips count as that pay. We haven’t found a Labor Commissioner answer for tipped workers. The reporting time pay FAQ is dated December 2016 and the split-shift FAQ May 2018.