A Guide to Time Cards and California Timekeeping Requirements
The state of California has one of the most comprehensive and detailed sets of employee time card rules in the country. While many states only require employers to keep their employees’ timesheets for a few years, California mandates that timecards be kept both confidential and accurate in order to ensure liability upon the employer for any discrepancies . In addition to protecting employees, California time card laws promote adherence to fair pay practices on behalf of employers, and allow for greater accessibility to hours worked documentation by employees themselves.
Timekeeping Requirements Under California Law
California law mandates that employers and employees clock in and out for each shift. The time card must contain the employee’s name and clearly show the times of arrival and the times of departure and whether the time is AM or PM. If there is more than one shift at the same workplace, the time card should show which shift the employee is working.
The employee must clock in and out for any meal break in excess of 20 minutes. There is an exception for employees who are "on duty" during meal breaks — their time records do not need to show meal breaks.
Employers need to have timekeeping practices specific to individual employees and not just a single policy. For example, for commission employees, the individual’s paycheck must show the number of days worked, the dates of the pay period and the hours worked, which separately includes the total hours worked during the regular rate of pay and the amount of overtime premium wages earned for those hours.
The timekeeping records must be in ink or another indelible form. If they are recorded on cards, the cards must be secured on a spindle to prevent further use.
Employer Obligations When It Comes to Employee Time Cards in California
Employer Responsibilities & Fines for Non-Compliance Consider the scenario where an employee is asked to work overtime hours on a regular basis such as for projects that need to be completed before a deadline. At the end of a typical day; the employee does not clock out and instead is instructed to finish the work from home. In this scenario, the employer is granting the employee off-the-clock access to the time card system. In this scenario, California Labor Code considers the employee to have worked 40 hours and therefore must be paid at 1.5X their normal rate for the hours worked above 40 in this workweek. The employer who fails to pay the employee all over time hours worked is in violation of the California Labor Code which may result in facing both civil and criminal liability. Employers are also required to keep these records in a safe place for [insert number of years] years. Employers must be careful not to exclude employees from utilizing the timecard system.
What Are the Employee Rights Regarding Time Cards in California?
Employees in California have protections under timekeeping laws. Employees have the right to view time cards, know of work hours, and receive all compensation that is owed. Knowing their rights will drastically reduce any uncertainty regarding hours worked and pay. If an employee notices an error in the payment of wages or another issue with their pay or time, they can pursue a claim for unpaid wages.
Under the Labor Code, California employees must be paid for a certain number of hours for work performed. In addition, labor laws protect workers when an employer has not paid these wages. Labor Code section 204 states that employees must be paid on certain paydays including twice monthly unless the parties agree to a different schedule. Other statutes require that additional compensation be paid to employees in special circumstances. This includes overtime pay, waiting time penalties, and meal and rest period compensation. There are additional California wage and hour laws that require compensation for travel times, sales commissions, and other unpaid wages that are owed.
The Impact of New Technology on Timekeeping Policies
The 21st century workplace is filled with technology and creative solutions to almost all problems imaginable. While many of these developments have helped employers keep up with California’s intricate requirements, technological advances often mean increased compliance obligations and a tendency to discount the need for compliance altogether. This section highlights some of the more interesting digital timekeeping systems and highlights their role in compliance with California’s time card laws.
Biometric time clocks are routinely touted as an effective way to ensure that employees are punching in and out at the precise times required by law. Biometrics are devices, or systems, that are capable of recognizing a human being based on an intrinsic physical or behavioral trait. For example, a biometric facial recognition system can identify an employee once they approach the time clock. After enrollment (i.e., taking a photo), it scans the employee’s face for a match. Once matched, the employee’s information is displayed, and they are welcomed. This technology is faster than misreading bar codes or manual time entry, and arguably limits falsifying time through buddy punching.
Legally, biometric time clocks are a minefield. The state has already deemed any "biometric identification system" that scans fingerprints to be "personal information" under California’s data breach notification law. AB 1215 addressed the issue of biometric timekeeping in 2013 , requiring that employers notify employees of the use of biometric time clocks. The law also prohibits employers from using biometric timekeeping for employees hired before January 1, 2013, unless employees give consent.
RFID technology works by embedding an RF-enabled device, such as a smart card, into objects being tagged and affixing RFID labels or stickers directly onto these items. These readers can communicate with an RFID device to carry out certain tasks. For example, RFID-enabled badges worn by employees can be automatically scanned, and data is transmitted to the clock. This makes it easier for employers to control and manage access. RFID readers can be used to manage people, things, conditions, events, processes, etc.
Tagging employees, by whatever means, generally can only be justifiable in very limited circumstances and those circumstances are already regulated by state and federal law. Similar to the above, this is also a means to control and manage employees and is also generally not worth the legal risk.
Mobile Apps are also a thing of the past and the most widely used form of self-reporting. To be legally compliant under Labor Code, it must be truthful, reliable and in real-time. However, it can be used to help employers review time. With any app the only way to determine time accuracy is to ensure that the app cannot be altered by anyone other than the employee.
Common Errors and How to Avoid Them
Employees and employers alike make many mistakes when recording employees’ hours worked, both in punching in and out on time clocks or using manual and computerized time cards to record their work time.
An employer may find that an employee who works a long shift one day may leave early the next several days when she has to work a much shorter scheduled shift. This is likely based on her understanding that she made up for the less heavy workload one day by working longer on another day. An employer may also be likely to have an employee who takes long to complete assignments and who is therefore close to hourly overtime every week. This raises the risk that the worker will at some point "forget" to punch out so as not to have to account for the unpaid overtime for that day.
Employers need to establish a policy that requires employees to always "clock in or out" for lunch before leaving the lunch area so as to avoid providing "on duty lunch." Employers must make sure to have a written company policy that prohibits "working through lunch." An employer who pays an employee off the clock because that employee did not want to take an unpaid lunch period is still liable for having missed the meal break even if the employee never points it out to the employer. Cal. Lab. Code § 226.7. So the employer should make sure that employees record the rest break on their time card (or clock in or out for the rest break on the computerized time recording system) at the start or end of their lunch break.
The courts, the DLSE and the DFEH have all warned employers that they may be liable for double the entire wage owed if an employer fails to maintain accurate, complete time records. The employer must pay this amount regardless of whether the employer actually owes the employee any unpaid wages. Wage Orders: Resources for the California Div. of Labor Standards Enforcement and California Div. of Labor. A reasonable employee’s perception that the employer required them to take unpaid meal periods or a rest period when they were not available for work is sufficient for absence of meal periods to be "found." A reasonable employee’s perception that the employer required them to remain on duty during their rest periods is sufficient for the employer to be found liable for a second full hour of pay at the employee’s regular rate of pay for each workday there was a missed rest period. And this is true even if the employee never even filled out a written complaint to the employer.
An employer may argue that the employee’s taking of required rest periods and meal breaks is an affirmative duty placed on the employees, but customers that are unexpectedly late or slow to be served provide a strong defense that will likely rebut any presumption of consent—for the employer bears the risk of insufficient staffing. Therefore, if the employer isn’t adequately staffed to accommodate its customers that come in at the lunch periods, it cannot complain if its staff requires a rest or meal period.
Employers must keep abreast of guidelines and decisions by the courts and the various agencies reviewing employee wage claims so that they may tweak their policies, practices and documents to comply with any changes.
California Time Card Laws FAQs
Over the years, I have encountered many questions from clients and friends regarding California’s time card laws on lunch breaks, overtime, and rates of pay. After going through dozens of conversations on these specific issues, I have tried to summarize and compile some FAQs that may help you.
Do I have to pay my employees for travel time?
California law requires you to compensate your non-exempt employees for all time that they are under your control. This means travel time to a job site or the commute to the first job site of the day must be paid unless the employee’s home is the base of work.
Are janitors required to be compensated for their time spent traveling from site to site?
The general rule is that if the janitor is commuting from home to a site and then back home (even if stopping at a gas station or store along the way), he does not have to be compensated. However, if the janitor first goes to the office at some designated time before going to the first job site , he must be compensated for the time spent at the office and driving to the job site.
Does an employer have to compensate non-exempt employees for time spent working during lunch breaks?
Employees in California are entitled to a meal break of at least thirty minutes for every five hours of work. If an employee works during a meal break, the employer is required to pay the employee for that time plus a premium rate of pay for the missed break. In addition, if an employee is relieved of his/her duties but is not free to leave the premises, the break is considered "on duty" and must be paid.
Do I really have to pay my employees for all of the time that an employee spends working from home?
Yes, since the employee is under the "control" of the employer, the employee must be compensated for the work. However, you may consider a policy whereby the employee must log in to an internet based application indicating the start and stop times of work and the type of work conducted.