CA · 6 rules · reviewed 2026-05
California scheduling laws
California has the most prescriptive scheduling-related labor laws in the US. Daily overtime, meal/rest period premiums, reporting time pay, and one-day-rest-in-seven all interact with the schedule directly — getting any of them wrong is wage-and-hour litigation territory.
This is a reference, not legal advice. Every rule below links to its primary source — a statute, an ordinance, or the enforcing agency — so you can read the law rather than a summary of a summary. Consult counsel before relying on any of it.
All 6 rules below apply regardless of industry. Most US predictive-scheduling law is municipal, so where a rule comes from a city ordinance its name says so — a company can easily have one location covered and two not.
Daily overtime
Cal. Lab. Code §510Hours beyond 8 in a day pay 1.5x. Hours beyond 12 in a day pay 2x. The 7th consecutive day in a workweek triggers premiums on the first 8 hours and 2x after.
In Weekwright: Configure a custom MAX_HOURS_PER_DAY rule with BLOCKING severity at 8 (warn) and 12 (block). The conflict detector flags every shift that crosses the threshold before publish.
Meal period requirement
Cal. Lab. Code §512Employees working more than 5 hours are entitled to an unpaid 30-minute meal period before the 5th hour. Missing or short meal periods owe a 1-hour-of-pay penalty.
In Weekwright: Track break starts/ends with the clock-in flow; the audit log surfaces missed meal periods so you can true-up payroll instead of being surprised by a Department of Industrial Relations claim.
Rest periods
Cal. Wage Order 4-2001 §1210-minute paid rest period for every 4 hours worked (or major fraction). Rest periods can't be combined with meal periods.
In Weekwright: Record rest break transitions via the clock-in/out flow; managers see compliance posture in the audit log without combing timesheets manually.
One day of rest in seven
Cal. Lab. Code §551-552Employees must have at least one day off in every 7-day workweek. Some narrow industry exemptions exist; agriculture and some emergency roles excluded.
In Weekwright: MAX_CONSECUTIVE_DAYS rule preset to 6 BLOCKING enforces this — the conflict detector refuses to publish a 7-day streak.
Reporting time pay
Cal. Wage Order 4-2001 §5If an employee reports to work as scheduled but is sent home or works less than half the scheduled shift, the employer owes half the scheduled day's wages (minimum 2 hours, max 4 hours).
In Weekwright: Bulk-modify or bulk-delete-week with the audit log preserves what was originally scheduled vs what actually happened — you can compute reporting-time-pay liability at the end of the period.
Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act
Cal. Lab. Code §245.55 days (40 hours) of paid sick leave per year, accrued 1 hour per 30 hours worked. Frontloading 5 days at the start of year is allowed.
In Weekwright: Time-off requests with custom types (Sick) flow into the conflict detector — proposed shifts on approved sick days flag automatically.
Primary sources
Read the law itself. These are the statutes, ordinances and agencies the rules above are taken from.
California by industry
The same statutes read for one vertical, with the scheduling patterns that vertical actually runs.
Other states
Again, because it matters: this is not legal advice. It is a reading aid over primary sources, maintained by a software company rather than a law firm. It surfaces obvious gaps so you can act on them — it does not tell you whether a specific ordinance applies to your specific business. Consult counsel for that. Found something out of date? hello@weekwright.com — a correction to a primary source is welcome from anyone, customer or not.
Rules your California schedule actually checks.
Weekwright enforces the baseline for where each shift happens, before you publish. Free for a single location, up to 20 employees.