California Labor Guidance
Free plain-English summaries of opinion letters, administrative policies, and interpretive notices from California's labor agency, with the current status and the official source on every page.
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Calculating paid sick leave pay for commissioned and exempt employees
An attorney asked how to calculate paid sick leave pay for an employee paid almost entirely by commission, and separately for an exempt employee who also receives an annual bonus. DLSE explains that a…
Domestic Worker Bill of Rights does not cover residential care facilities
A residential care facility caring for adults with disabilities asked whether California's 2014 Domestic Worker Bill of Rights applied to its business. DLSE explained the law expressly excludes "care …
Educational internship program (Year Up, Inc.) exempt from minimum wage
A law firm asked whether interns in Year Up, Inc.'s job-training program for underserved 18-24 year olds had to be paid as employees under California's minimum wage law. Applying the federal six-facto…
Deducting partial-day absences of exempt employees from leave balances
An employer asked whether it could deduct hours from an exempt employee's accrued vacation or sick leave bank for a series of specific partial-day absence scenarios. DLSE confirmed that while an exemp…
Reducing exempt employees' work schedule and salary to avoid layoffs
A law firm asked whether an employer could cut exempt employees' workweek from five days to four with a corresponding pay reduction, as a temporary alternative to layoffs during the 2009 recession. DL…
Administrative exemption applicable to IT managers/supervisors — no determination, general guidance
A law firm asked whether three IT department supervisors (help desk, systems administration, and reporting) at a national equipment-rental company qualify for the administrative exemption from overtim…
Personal attendant definition under Wage Order 15: scope of duties
A home-care industry trade association asked DLSE to clarify what duties count toward the "personal attendant" exemption under Wage Order 15, which exempts qualifying home-care workers from most wage …
Determination of exempt or non-exempt status of officers and 'key administrative personnel' employed by labor unions
A union-side law firm asked DLSE to categorically declare that labor union officers and "key administrative personnel" (business agents, organizers, field representatives) are exempt from overtime. DL…
The teacher exemption is limited to certificated or college-level teachers
A law firm asked whether California's professional exemption for "teachers" extends beyond those certified by the Commission for Teacher Preparation and Licensing or teaching at an accredited college,…
Pay tied to collecting patient bills isn't a valid exempt salary
A psychological treatment center paid its licensed psychologists and assistants a percentage of collections received from patients or insurers, often months after services were rendered, and asked whe…
Site surveillance technicians don't qualify as exempt professionals
An employer asked whether "site surveillance technicians," who monitor asbestos abatement work under a certification requiring only a high school diploma and six months' experience, qualify for the pr…
Limousine drivers are not exempt from overtime as "taxicab drivers"
A limousine company argued its pre-arranged, dispatched drivers should be exempt from California overtime rules under either the taxicab-driver exemption or the exemption for drivers whose hours are f…
Wage requirements for camp counselors
An operator of educational overnight programs (including historic-ship stays and island camps) asked whether its counselors qualified for Labor Code section 1182.4's minimum-wage/overtime exemption fo…
Salesperson exemption (Orders 4 and 7)
An attorney argued that IWC Order 7's coverage of "commodities" sales didn't extend to insurance agents, and separately questioned whether an insurance agent's pay was really a "commission" as opposed…
Disciplinary deductions from an exempt employee's salary
An attorney e-mailed DLSE's Info Web Site asking whether an employer may dock a full week's pay from an exempt employee for disciplinary reasons, or deduct a lesser amount such as one or two days' pay…
Exempt employee: pro rata salary deduction on a 4-day workweek
A trade association asked, on behalf of a member, how much to deduct from an exempt employee's leave bank if that employee had voluntarily arranged to work only 4 days (about 10 hours each) per week a…
No exempt-salary deduction for a full-day absence if the employer expects some duty
An employer group asked DLSE's Info Web Site whether an exempt employee who checks voicemail and e-mail for 10-15 minutes during an otherwise full-day vacation absence can still have that day's salary…
Exempt employee: salary reduction tied to reduced hours or a shortened workweek
An employer posed five detailed scenarios asking whether cutting an exempt employee's salary destroys the exemption, ranging from a companywide across-the-board pay cut to a scheme pairing a salary cu…
Salary basis requirements for exempt employees under Labor Code §515
Responding to an inquiry from the Chairman of the Industrial Welfare Commission, Labor Commissioner Arthur Lujan set out DLSE's enforcement position on the "monthly salary" requirement for exempt stat…
Compensation for employee's stand-by time
An attorney asked, on behalf of a U.S. DOL certifying officer reviewing an alien employment certification, whether a "senior line operator" job requiring 24-hour on-call availability (with a cell phon…
Truck driver/transportation industry overtime exemption under IWC Order 9-2001
A petroleum-transport driver in Redding wrote to DLSE asking why he wasn't entitled to overtime despite working 12-15 hour days, since he'd been told IWC Wage Order 9's exemption for drivers regulated…
Administrative exemption does not apply to recruiters of temporary workers
A law firm asked DLSE whether recruiters at a temporary-staffing company qualify for California's administrative exemption from overtime, given they work 60-95 hours a week for a salary plus small dis…
Overtime exemption: airport shuttle drivers don't qualify as regulated-hours drivers
An attorney asked DLSE to revise a 1997 opinion letter's conclusion that for-hire airport shuttle drivers are not exempt from overtime under Wage Order 9's exemption for drivers whose hours of service…
Administrative exemption: insurance company claims representatives are non-exempt 'production' workers
An attorney asked DLSE whether insurance company claims representatives — who estimate auto damage and injury costs, flag possible fraud, and seek approval above their authorized dollar limits — quali…
Outside sales exemption does not cover salespersons based in a model home or trailer
A law firm asked whether real estate salespersons who sell new tract homes while based out of a model home or temporary trailer at the housing site qualify for the outside salesperson exemption from I…
DLSE may pursue a group misclassification action without investigating each employee individually
An inquirer asked what DLSE's enforcement policy is when an investigation reveals that an employer has erroneously classified a whole group of similarly situated employees as exempt. DLSE explained th…
DLSE does not recognize the fluctuating workweek method of overtime pay
A law firm asked whether upcoming 1998 changes eliminating daily overtime in several wage orders would let California employers adopt the federal "fluctuating workweek" method of calculating overtime,…
Distinguishing a licensed practical/vocational nurse from an exempt "personal attendant"
A law firm asked DLSE to clarify the line between the services of a licensed practical (vocational) nurse and those of a "personal attendant" under the wage orders. DLSE explained that a personal atte…
DLSE will not follow the Ninth Circuit's Barner v. City of Novato view that vacation pay isn't salary
A law firm asked whether DLSE would follow the Ninth Circuit's decision in Barner v. City of Novato, which held that the federal salary-basis regulation's terms "amount" and "compensation" mean cash/s…
Follow-up on the remuneration test: hourly overtime pay to exempt employees, per Boykin v. Boeing
This is DLSE's follow-up to its April 28, 1997 letter to the same attorney on the "remuneration" requirement for the administrative, executive, and professional exemptions. That earlier letter had rel…
Overtime exemption for 'for hire' motortrucks does not cover airport or hotel shuttles
This letter corrects an error in a July 10, 1996 DLSE opinion letter to the same attorney about overtime exemptions for a portable-toilet company. The earlier letter had suggested Vehicle Code section…
Salary basis: DLSE revises its 'remuneration' test for the administrative/executive/professional exemptions
An employment attorney asked DLSE eleven detailed questions about how the "remuneration" requirement in the IWC Wage Orders' administrative, executive, and professional exemptions should be construed.…
Professional exemption: physician assistants and nurse practitioners assessed case-by-case, no blanket exemption
An attorney asked DLSE to confirm that physician assistants and nurse practitioners are exempt from minimum wage and overtime under the "learned and artistic" professional exemption if they meet feder…
Learned/artistic professional exemption: truck driving instructors do not qualify as 'teachers'
In a wage-claim dispute, an attorney for a truck driving school argued its state-certified driving instructors were exempt "teachers" or "learned or artistic" professionals under IWC Order 4-89, citin…
Entertainment-industry student intern program does not qualify for the trainee exemption
An attorney asked DLSE to confirm that a studio's unpaid college-student intern program, in which students earned course credit for routine studio tasks, did not create an employment relationship unde…
Overtime exemption for two-axle trucks: scope of the DOT/CHP/PUC hours-of-service carve-out
An attorney representing a portable-toilet waste-hauling company asked whether its two-axle tank-truck drivers were exempt from overtime under IWC Order 9-90's carve-out for drivers whose hours are re…
Personal-attendant exemption is fact-intensive, not opinable on hypothetical duty splits
An attorney asked DLSE to confirm, based on hypothetical percentage breakdowns of duties, that two categories of in-home care workers ("CNA/Companions" and "Sitter/Companions") qualified for the Wage …
Outside salesperson exemption under the IWC Orders differs from the federal FLSA test
An attorney asked whether DLSE analyzes the outside-salesperson exemption differently than federal Wage and Hour Division does under the FLSA. DLSE answered yes: federal law uses a "primary duty" test…
Golf instructors paid on commission fall under the Recreation Order, not the sales-commission exemption
An attorney representing a golf instruction company argued its commissioned instructors should fall under the occupational Wage Order 4 (to claim its commissioned-sales exemption) rather than the indu…
Overtime-exempt hours worked in a specifically exempt job don't count toward daily overtime in a mixed workday
A payroll consultant asked whether an employee who works part of a workday in a job covered by a California Wage Order (eligible for daily overtime after eight hours) and then switches to a specifical…
Paying exempt employees extra for hours beyond 10 in a day doesn't jeopardize their exempt status
A company's chief operations officer asked whether paying exempt employees for hours worked in excess of 10 in a day would jeopardize their exempt status under the California Industrial Welfare Commis…
Commissioned-salesperson overtime exemption and bona fide draws/guarantees against commission
A law firm asked DLSE to evaluate several sample commission pay plans for auto-dealership service advisors against the IWC Orders 4 and 9 overtime exemption for commissioned employees, including plans…
24-hour ambulance shift overtime exemption: scheduled sleep periods, split shifts, and no waiver by agreement
A law firm representing an ambulance company asked six questions about IWC Order 9-90's provision letting ambulance drivers and attendants work a full 24-hour shift with every hour treated as compensa…
Personal attendant exemption: 'regularly' giving medication is a fact question, not a bright-line rule
A law firm asked DLSE to clarify or modify Interpretive Bulletin 86-1, which excludes from the Wage Order 15 personal attendant exemption any worker who "regularly" gives medication or takes temperatu…
Executive exemption's 'customarily and regularly' supervision requirement is a fact question, not a fixed percentage
Two attorneys, on opposite sides of the same pending matter, separately asked DLSE to define "customarily and regularly," the standard used to decide whether an employee supervises enough workers to q…
Student interns still need a minor work permit even if not legal 'employees' under the wage orders
An employer's attorney asked DLSE to confirm that students in a proposed school-partnered internship program were not "employees" under the wage orders and that the company need not obtain work permit…
A pre-employment 'trainee' screening process must be separate from, and not a condition of, employment screening
A personnel-services firm asked DLSE to confirm its proposed computer- skills training program for unemployed job seekers met the Division's twelve-factor test for a true "trainee" (as opposed to an u…
Executive exemption: California's 'primarily engaged in' test differs from the federal 'primary duty' test, and simultaneous work counts once
An attorney for retail-service employers asked DLSE to confirm that managers and assistant managers who spend most of a long workday on managerial duties, but also make sales or perform service work f…
Whether a vocational-training participant is a minimum-wage-exempt 'trainee' turns on how much the on-site placement resembles ordinary job training
Counsel for a nonprofit serving homeless young adults asked DLSE to bless, in advance, a planned vocational program placing participants at "trainer businesses" for hands-on skills training, as exempt…
California has no federal-style 'salary basis test'; DLSE explains at length how its executive/administrative/professional exemption differs from the FLSA's
An attorney asked whether the federal "salary basis test" used to determine FLSA exemption status (and a related federal case, Abshire) affects California's own executive/administrative/professional e…
A hospital's 14-day/80-hour overtime schedule under Wage Order 5-89 must be voluntarily agreed to by the employee, unlike its federal FLSA counterpart
Following up on correspondence to a Senior Deputy Labor Commissioner about Section 3(C) of Wage Order 5-89 (the 14-day, 80-hour overtime work-period option for hospitals), DLSE wrote to clarify it did…
Personal-attendant exemption (IWC Order 15) does not cover workers who administer medication or take vital signs
This is a follow-up letter clarifying an earlier DLSE opinion about whether "Respite Workers" who assist home-care clients qualify as exempt "personal attendants" under IWC Wage Order 15's health-care…
Collective-bargaining overtime exemption ends when an employer unilaterally imposes terms after impasse, not merely when the old contract expires
Responding to a dispute involving National Broadcasting Co. and NABET, DLSE explained how the IWC Orders' exemption from overtime for employees covered by a qualifying collective bargaining agreement …
Day-of-rest exemption for the "grape industry" during harvest extends to wineries fermenting grapes
A law firm asked DLSE to reconcile the Industrial Welfare Commission's wage orders with Labor Code § 551's day-of-rest requirement, and whether Order 8-80's exemption for the "grape industry" during t…
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These are official interpretive documents from California's labor agency: opinion letters answering questions from employers and workers, administrative policies, and interpretive notices. They show how the agency applies wage-and-hour and workplace law to real situations, but they are guidance, not statutes or court decisions, and the agency can supersede or withdraw them. Every page above shows the document's current status, when that status was last verified, and a link to the official source.