For payday requirements in specific industries, see Wage and Hour Requirements for Specific Industries.

For information regarding preparing final paychecks for employees see Final Pay.

This page contains the following information:

• Regular Paydays
• Expense Reimbursements

Regular Paydays

The California Labor Code is specific about the timing of wage payments and regularity of paydays.

You must post a notice informing employees of paydays.1

Paydays for Nonexempt Employees

For nonexempt employees, all wages for the normal work period come due and are payable at least twice each calendar month on days you must designate in advance.2 For an explanation of exempt and nonexempt status, see Exempt/Nonexempt.

If you use a twice monthly schedule where wages are earned between the 1st and the 15th and the 16th and the end of the month, you must designate a regularly scheduled pay day and pay employees as follows: ³

If you don't use the twice monthly schedule above, you can instead pay employees weekly, biweekly or semimonthly. However, if you do, you must designate a regularly scheduled payday that is within seven calendar days of the end of the pay period during which wages were earned.4

For employees who work in an industry involving work for several employers in the same industry interchangeably, the employers can establish a plan for the payment of wages in a central place and at a single time.5

Paydays for Exempt Employees

You must also pay exempt employees at least twice during each calendar month, on days designated in advance as the regular paydays, within the same time frames as nonexempt employees.

However, salaries of executive, administrative and professional employees of employers covered by the FLSA can be paid once a month on or before the 26th day of the month. The monthly paycheck must include all wages for the month, including the as yet unearned portion between the date of payment and the last day of the month.6

Payday Notice

You must post the day, time and place of the regular payday in your workplace.7 As a convenience, the state provides a small form for this purpose. However, it is satisfactory to post this information in any understandable form. The payday notice is included as part of CalChamber’s California and Federal Labor Law Poster.

No specific law requires a particular amount of advance notice to employees if you change your payday schedule. However, to avoid potential violations of payday laws, notify employees of the planned change at least one full payroll cycle in advance of the new schedule.

Timely Payment of Overtime Wages

Payment of overtime wages earned in one pay period can be delayed until no later than the payday for the next pay period. Only the payment of overtime wages can be delayed until the following pay period. Straight-time wages must be paid within the times set forth in the table located in “Paydays for Nonexempt Employees” in Timely Payment.8

If you delay payment of overtime wages to the following pay period, you can itemize the hours as corrections on the pay stub for the period in which they are paid, if you identify the date of the pay period to which they are attributable.

Employer Closed on Payday

If you are closed on a payday that falls on a Saturday, Sunday or a holiday listed in the California Government Code, you can pay wages on the next business day.9

The following holidays are listed in the Government Code:10

• January 1 — New Year’s Day
• Third Monday in January — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Day
• February 12 — Lincoln’s Day
• The date corresponding with the second new moon following the winter solstice, or the third new moon following the winter solstice should an intercalary month intervene, known as "Lunar New Year."
• Third Monday in February — Presidents’ Day
• March 31st — Cesar Chavez Day
• April 24 — Genocide Remembrance Day
• The 15th day of the month of Kartik in the Hindu lunar calendar of each year, known as "Diwali."
• Last Monday in May — Memorial Day
• June 19 — Juneteenth
• July 4 — Independence Day
• First Monday in September — Labor Day
• September 9 — Admission Day
• Fourth Friday in September — Native Americans’ Day
• Second Monday in October — Columbus Day
• November 11 — Veterans Day
• Fourth Thursday in November — Thanksgiving Day
• December 25 — Christmas
• September 9 - Admission Day
• Other days appointed by the governor for a public fast, thanksgiving or holiday

• If a listed day falls on a Sunday, the following Monday is considered to be the holiday. If November 11, Veterans Day, falls on a Saturday, the preceding Friday is the holiday. . If March 31 falls on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, the Legislature may observe the holiday on the preceding Friday or Monday or the following Friday.11

Neither state nor federal law requires private employers to provide holidays. The payday exception applies only if the business is closed.12

Employee Failure to Complete Timecard

Even when an employee fails to turn in a record of time worked, you remain legally obligated to pay the employee on the established payday. The law doesn’t allow you to require the employee to wait until the next payday or until they turn the timecard in to receive those wages.

You can still comply with this law even without a time record. Pay all wages due for the employee’s normal work period — for example, 40 hours for a full-time employee — and defer payment of any overtime worked until the next regular payday.13

Though you cannot withhold wages as a penalty for failing to turn in a timecard, you can discipline the employee in other ways. You can treat failure to turn in a timecard as a violation of a work rule and penalize the employee with suspension, demotion or termination. Follow your own established disciplinary procedures.

Some employers use positive methods to remind employees to turn in timecards, such as a small bonus or party if all department members turn in their timecards on time for a calendar quarter.

For more information, see Hours of Work and Recording Time Worked.

Paydays for Temporary Employees

Specific requirements apply to paydays for employees of temporary services employers. Failure to follow the requirements can result in civil and criminal penalties.

Labor Code section 201.3 provides that:

• Wages are due and payable to an employee of a temporary service employer no less frequently than weekly, regardless of when the assignment ends. Wages for work performed during any calendar week shall be due and payable not later than the regular payday of the following calendar week. This includes security guards employed by private patrol operators who are temporary services employers.
• If an employee of a temporary services employer is assigned to work for a client on a day-to-day basis, that employee’s wages are due and payable at the end of each day.

Both requirements apply unless the employee is assigned for more than 90 days.14

Employees on Strike

Striking employees’ earned wages become payable in full on the next regularly scheduled payday.15

Paydays for Interstate Employees

The California Supreme Court considered the circumstances in which certain provisions of the California Labor Code, including section 204 which governs timely payments, can apply to out-of-state employers with employees who only spend some of their time working in the state.16 The particular case involved an airline employer that employed flight crew employees performing most of their work in airspace outside California’s jurisdiction. The employees complained that the employer did not pay timely wages per Labor Code requirements.

The court concluded that California’s timing of pay requirements found in section 204 apply to any employees who, in any particular pay period, either:

• Perform the majority of their work in California; or
• Don’t perform the majority of their work in any particular state but perform some work in California and their base of operations is in California.

As an example, if a pilot or flight attendant has a designated home-base airport in California, then section 204 would apply.

1. Lab. Code sec. 207