California — Hiring & Onboarding

All U.S. employers, including those in California, must complete Form I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification) for every individual hired for employment in the United States after November 6, 1986. This requirement applies to all employees, including U.S. citizens and noncitizens. The employee completes Section 1 by their first day of work, attesting under penalty of perjury to their employment authorization. The employer must then examine acceptable documents that establish identity and employment authorization, record the document information in Section 2, and attest that the documents reasonably appear genuine. Employers must retain the completed I-9 for three years after the date of hire or one year after employment ends, whichever is later.

Source: 8 U.S.C. § 1324a; USCIS Form I-9 Instructions

California Labor Code § 2810.5 requires employers to provide each nonexempt employee with a written wage notice at the time of hiring. The requirement took effect January 1, 2012, as part of the Wage Theft Protection Act (AB 469, Chapter 655, Statutes of 2011). The notice must be provided in the language the employer normally uses to communicate employment-related information to the employee.

Required notice content

The written notice must contain the following information under subsection (a)(1):

• Rate(s) of pay and basis thereof — whether paid by the hour, shift, day, week, salary, piece, commission, or otherwise, including any rates for overtime as applicable (subsection (a)(1)(A)). If multiple pay rates apply, all applicable rates must be listed.
• Allowances claimed — any meal or lodging allowances the employer claims as part of the minimum wage (subsection (a)(1)(B)).
• Regular payday — the payday designated by the employer in accordance with California law (subsection (a)(1)(C)).
• Employer name — including any "doing business as" (DBA) names used by the employer (subsection (a)(1)(D)).
• Physical address — the employer's main office or principal place of business, and a mailing address if different (subsection (a)(1)(E)).
• Telephone number — of the employer (subsection (a)(1)(F)).
• Workers' compensation carrier — the name, address, and telephone number of the employer's workers' compensation insurance carrier (subsection (a)(1)(G)).
• Paid sick leave information — information about the employee's rights to accrue and use paid sick leave under state law (subsection (a)(1)(H)).
• Emergency or disaster declarations — information about any state or federal emergency or disaster declaration applicable to the county or counties where the employee will work, issued within 30 days before the employee's first day of employment, that may affect the employee's health and safety during employment (subsection (a)(1)(I), added effective January 1, 2024, by AB 636).

Additional requirements for specific employers

Temporary services employers (as defined in Cal. Lab. Code § 201.3) must also include in the notice the name, physical address, mailing address, and telephone number of the legal entity for whom the employee will perform work (subsection (a)(3)). Security services companies licensed by the Department of Consumer Affairs that solely provide security services are exempt from this requirement.

Employers of H-2A agricultural visa workers must provide a supplemental notice in Spanish containing a separate and distinct section describing an agricultural employee's additional rights and protections under California law and regulations. This includes information on the H-2A program wage rate required during the contract period, overtime wage rates, frequency of pay, piece-rate pay, rest and meal periods, transportation and travel-time compensation, employee housing rights, anti-retaliation protections, wage statement contents, sexual harassment prohibitions, and availability of toilets, potable water, and handwashing facilities (subsection (a)(4)(A)).

Timing and format

The statute requires the notice "at the time of hiring." The Division of Labor Standards Enforcement FAQ interprets this as no later than the employee's start date of work. The Labor Commissioner provides template notices that employers may use; templates are available in English, Spanish, and multiple other languages at the DIR website. According to the DLSE FAQ, the required notice under § 2810.5 "must be on its own form" and "[e]mployees should not be required to piece together the information from several separate documents or pages of a manual."

Update requirement

If any information on the notice changes, the employer must notify the employee in writing within seven calendar days after the change, unless one of two exceptions applies: (1) all changes are reflected on a timely wage statement furnished under Labor Code § 226, or (2) notice of all changes is provided in another writing required by law within seven days (subsection (b)).

Exemptions

The notice requirement does not apply to:

• Employees directly employed by the state or any political subdivision (city, county, city and county, or special district).
• Employees who are exempt from the payment of overtime wages by statute or Industrial Welfare Commission wage orders.
• Employees covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement that expressly provides for wages, hours, and working conditions and meets certain premium-wage requirements (subsection (c)).

Enforcement

Section 2810.5 does not impose an independent civil penalty for noncompliance, but failure to provide the required notice or timely updates may be enforced through wage claim proceedings before the Labor Commissioner and through Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) representative actions, as the notice requirement is a Labor Code provision affecting wage transparency and enforcement. Affected employees may file claims with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.

Source: Cal. Lab. Code § 2810.5; DIR Wage Theft Protection Act of 2011 — Notice to Employees FAQ