10 Employee Rights Every California Worker Should Know

10 of the most important rights that you have under California employment law include:

1. overtime pay,
2. meal and rest breaks,
3. anti-discrimination rights,
4. protection from sexual harassment,
5. family and medical leave (FMLA),
6. minimum wages,
7. protection from workplace retaliation,
8. workplace safety,
9. sick leave, and
10. protection from wrongful termination.

All of these protections apply if you are a non-exempt employee. If you are an exempt employee, the minimum wage, overtime, and meal and rest breaks protections do not extend to you.

To be exempt, you must spend more than half your work time on “exempt duties” (typically administrative, executive, and professional work). Plus you must earn at least twice California’s minimum wage for full-time employment.

Meanwhile, none of these employment protections extend to independent contractors, which are self-employed people who provide services under specified terms and have control over how the work is performed. However, independent contractors are still free to bring traditional lawsuits against employers if they suffer physical or financial harm.

1. The right to overtime pay

If you are a non-exempt employee, you have a right to receive overtime pay (1.5 times your regular rate of pay) for time worked in excess of:

• 8 hours in a workday,
• 40 hours in a workweek, or
• 6 days in a workweek.¹

In California, you can also earn overtime premium pay – which is twice your regular hourly rate (“double time”) – if you work:

• more than 12 hours in a single day, or
• more than 8 hours on your seventh consecutive day of work.²

Overtime rights can also be adjusted by:

• an alternative workweek schedule,
• union contracts, or
• collective bargaining agreements.

Employers often try to misclassify non-exempt employees as exempt employees or as independent contractors in an effort to get out of paying overtime.

2. The right to meal and rest breaks

If you are a non-exempt California worker, you have a right to a paid 10-minute rest break for every four hours you work (or “major fraction” thereof).

You also have a right to an unpaid 30-minute lunch or a meal break if you work more than five hours in a day. If you work more than 10 hours in a day, you are entitled to a second 30-minute meal break.

3. The right to protection from discrimination

Both California and federal laws protect you from workplace discrimination. In California specifically, employers may not terminate, deny employment or training to, demote, discipline, or otherwise harass or discriminate against you based on these protected characteristics:

• race (or characteristics associated with it such as color, hair texture or facial features),
• religion,
• gender,
• sex (including pregnancy, breastfeeding, and related conditions),
• pregnancy,
• age (40 or older),
• disability (mental or physical),
• medical condition,
• genetic information,
• sexual orientation,
• gender identity & expression (including transgenderism),
• marital status,
• military/veteran status,
• national origin, and
• ethnicity

If you have been discriminated against in the workplace, you can hire an employment attorney from a law firm and file a claim with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) or the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

4. The right to protection from sexual harassment

Sexual harassment comes in two forms. It can:

1. create a hostile working environment with inappropriate behavior by co-workers, supervisors, or even clients that is severe or pervasive; or
2. amount to a quid pro quo, where a job-related benefit given by a supervisor is conditioned on a sexual favor.³

Both forms of behavior are prohibited by state laws, like the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), as well as federal laws, like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (which applies to companies with 15 employees or more).

Note that sexual harassment includes not only comments or actions that are sexual in nature; they can also include comments or actions that degrade an employee’s gender. Mild, one-time, teasing comments usually do not qualify as harassment.

5. The right to family and medical leave

You have both California state and federal rights to take a limited amount of unpaid time off from work to care for a sick family member. These family and medical leave rights come from

• the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and
• the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).⁴

While you are on leave, your employer is required to:

• continue providing healthcare coverage,
• provide other health benefits, and
• bring you back in the same or a comparable position.

6. The right to minimum wage

Non-exempt workers in California must earn at least the state’s minimum wage of $16.00 an hour. (The federal minimum wage is only $7.25.)

Exempt workers in California must earn a salary that is at least twice the state’s minimum hourly wage: $66,560 per year.⁵

7. The right to protection from workplace retaliation

In California, you cannot face retaliation for:

• filing or assisting in a government “qui tam” claim against your employer under the California False Claims Act,⁶
• requesting reasonable accommodations for your disability or religious beliefs,⁷
• resisting or opposing workplace harassment or discrimination, or filing a complaint about it or participating in an investigation,⁸
• asking colleagues or managers about salary information to see whether there is any discrimination, or
• reporting violations of state or federal law.⁹

Retaliation is any adverse employment action that targets you because you engaged in one of these protected activities. Examples of adverse employment actions include not only termination and demotion but also:

• giving you unjustified poor performance reviews,
• inflicting physical or verbal threats or abuse on you, or
• spreading lies about you.

8. The right to a safe workplace

Employers have legal obligations to:

• inspect their worksites to find dangerous or hazardous conditions,
• correct unsafe situations or hazards in work environments,
• properly maintain working equipment, and
• provide and pay for personal protective equipment.

You have a right to file a complaint about unsafe working conditions with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or its California equivalent, Cal/OSHA.

Should you get hurt on the job, you will often have a right to workers’ compensation to cover the costs of your work-related injuries.

Note that in an emergency situation, employers are not permitted to take or threaten adverse action against you for refusing to come or stay at work because you have a reasonable belief the work site is unsafe.¹⁰

Workplace privacy

In addition to having a right to workplace safety, employees in California have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the workplace under state law. This means that workers are generally entitled to the privacy of their personal possessions, such as backpacks, purses, briefcases, and storage lockers, as long as those items are not accessible to others.

Employees also have a right to privacy regarding personal phone calls and conversations that take place at work, as long as they do not excessively interfere with work duties. However, privacy rights do not extend to company-owned equipment like computers and phones, and employers can monitor usage of those items.

9. The right to sick leave

California law requires you to earn paid sick leave at a rate of at least one hour for every 30 hours worked. Full-time employees must get at least 40 hours of paid sick leave per 12 months.¹¹

Most employers, however, have more generous sick leave provisions.

10. The right to protection from wrongful termination

Among other things, California employers are prohibited from firing or terminating you for:

• filing a workers’ compensation claim or reporting a workplace injury,
• engaging in whistleblower activities,
• exercising your First Amendment rights or your rights under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), or
• using your employee leave rights.

If you get fired for one of these reasons, you have legal grounds to go after your employer for wrongful termination.

My workplace rights have been violated. Now what?

If you believe your rights as an employee have been violated, request a copy of your personnel file and any employment contract or employee handbook that may be relevant. Refuse to sign any documents you are uncomfortable with, and be sure to document any unlawful or retaliatory actions taken against you.

It is usually recommended that you go to your company’s human resources department and show them the evidence of your violated rights. In many cases, this can be enough to remedy the situation.

If HR does not help you, contact me so we can discuss filing a claim with the appropriate state agency (typically the Labor Commissioner or the Civil Rights Department). Alternatively, we can file a traditional lawsuit.

Depending on your case, we would seek the following remedies:

• all back pay you are owed plus interest,
• all the paid or unpaid leave you are entitled to,
• promotions and bonuses,
• changes to your job so that your harasser has no contact with you,
• reinstatement to your job,
• court costs, and/or
• attorney’s fees.

Understandably, you may not wish to return to your old job due to the abuse you suffered there. In those cases, I would fight for a generous severance package.

Additional resources

For more information, refer to the following:

• The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) – Federal law that forbids employment discrimination based on mental or physical disabilities by employers with 15 or more employees. The ADA also requires reasonable accommodations such as disabled parking, modified work schedules, and assistive devices.
• Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) – Federal law that protects individuals who are 40 years of age or older from age-related employment discrimination by employers with 20 or more employees.
• Equal Pay Act of 1963 – Federal law that prohibits sex-based wage discrimination between men and women who perform substantially equal work in the same establishment.
• Employee Rights – Summary provided by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
• 13 Things Your Boss Can’t Legally Do – List by U.S. News and World Report.
• Worker Rights – Overview by the U.S. Department of Labor.
• National Labor Relations Board – An independent federal agency protecting the rights of private sector workers.
• Journal of Workplace Rights – A quarterly academic journal that publishes research related to employment rights, labor laws, and management-labor relations.

Also see our Los Angeles employment lawyers’ related articles on the California Equal Pay Act and pay stub requirements.

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Legal References