Lesson Last Updated: February 29, 2024

Lesson Highlights

Have you ever been called into work, only to be told to go home shortly after because your employer had nothing for you to do that day? It happens! But it’s important to know that in some scenarios, that time is supposed to be paid time. Now that you’re an employer, you should understand when that’s the case.

In this lesson, we'll cover the following topics:

• What Reporting Time Pay Is;
• What the Exceptions to Reporting Time Pay Are; and
• Meetings and Reporting Time Pay.

What Is Reporting Time Pay?

In order to encourage responsible scheduling and provide sufficient notice to employees when changes in the schedule might be necessary, the California Wage Orders require employers to compensate non-exempt employees for certain regularly scheduled time, even if they don’t ultimately require the employee to work. If they “report” to work during this scheduled time, then this may apply, hence the name “reporting time pay.” 

The Wage Orders make it clear that:

• If an employee reports to work on a scheduled workday but is not put to work OR is furnished with less than half their usual or scheduled day’s work, the employee must be paid for (a) two (2) hours at their regular rate of pay, OR (b) half their usual scheduled day’s work (up to four (4) hours).
  • If the employee does not have specified scheduled hours, then the employee will receive the two (2) hours; but
  • If the employee does have a specified schedule, the employee will receive the greater number of hours between (a) and (b) above.
• If an employee reports to work a second time in a scheduled workday and is furnished with less than two (2) hours of work, the employee must be paid for two (2) hours at their regular rate of pay. [1]

What’s with the two (2) hours being thrown around in each scenario? The Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (“DLSE”) chose that number to address situations where there is no usual or scheduled workday–for example, if an employee is called in for an unspecified number of hours on a day they normally have off. This creates what we refer to as the “two (2) hour minimum.”

An example of this would be if an employer asks Employee A on Friday afternoon to report to work on Saturday to cover for Employee B. If Employee A doesn’t typically work on Saturdays, they don’t have a “usual” schedule, and if the employer isn’t sure how long they’ll need to be there for, then they don’t have a specified “schedule” for Saturday; they’re simply scheduled to work for an unspecified amount of time. Continuing this example, say Employee A comes to work on Saturday, but Employee B also reports to work unexpectedly. In that scenario, if the employer dismisses Employee A for the day (“it’s your day off, go enjoy it!”), then the employer would still have to pay the employee the two (2) hour minimum.

It’s important to note that, for the purposes of things like calculating overtime, only the time actually spent working is counted as hours worked. [2] So say Employee A worked for 15 minutes before being dismissed from work–while Employee A would receive two (2) hours of reporting time pay, only 15 minutes would be considered for overtime, because that’s all they actually worked. Overtime isn’t meant to make people rich; it’s supposed to pose a deterrent for overworking employees. If the employee isn’t actually working beyond the overtime thresholds, then there’s no need to deploy the deterrent!

Exceptions

There are exceptions to (almost) every rule of course, and reporting time pay is no different. Exceptions apply when an employer’s inability or failure to provide an employee or employees with work results from specific causes beyond the employer’s control. Examples include:

• Inability of the employer’s operations to commence/continue because of specific threats to employees or property;
• Inability of the employer’s operations to commence/continue because of the recommendation of civil authorities (like the police);
• Failure of public utilities or the sewer system;
• Interruption of work caused by an “act of God” or “Force Majeure” (like a storm knocking the power out or otherwise creating an unsafe condition);
• Where an employee reports to work unfit (i.e., the employee reports to work intoxicated or otherwise under the influence of a controlled substance); and
• When an employee is sent home early due to a disciplinary action.  

And of course, reporting time pay is not required when an employee requests to leave work early for personal reasons. [3]

Meetings and Reporting Time Pay

We mentioned in our lesson “Lectures, Meetings, and Training: Do You Need to Pay?” that  if an employee is required to attend a training or similar activity during their off-hours, reporting time pay may be required. So let’s dig into that a bit more here!

A California court examined this scenario in 2011: An employee was not scheduled to work a shift on a particular day, but he agreed to come to the workplace for the meeting on that day, his day off. According to the employee, the meeting ended up lasting less than five (5) minutes, and he received two (2) hours of regular pay at his hourly rate for reporting for this meeting. The employee worked different hours during his employment, and his shifts ranged from approximately four (4) hours to eight (8) hours, with the employee stating that on average, he would work 6.31 hours per workday. Because of this, he argued he should have been paid more than the two (2) hours for coming into work. However, the court disagreed. 

Although the employee in this scenario was asked to attend a meeting on his day off, he did not lose any pay that he was otherwise scheduled for, and because of this, he was entitled to the two (2) hour minimum. [4]

Had he been told the meeting was going to take a certain amount of time, the court may have found differently, so keep this in mind when asking employees to come to work on their day off. This rule also applies for training or workshops that employees are expected to attend on their days off.

If you aren’t sure how much time you should pay an employee for reporting time, you should run this by an attorney. Like all other wages, there are specific timelines you must follow and you want to ensure that you’re paying people properly so that you can avoid liability.

This Lesson's Sources:

[1] Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Orders

[2] 29 C.F.R. § 778.220

[3] 2002 Division of Labor Standards Enforcement Policies and Interpretations Manual  § 45

[4] Price v. Starbucks Corp., 192 Cal.App.4th 1136