Do I need to compensate or reimburse employees who are required to use their personal devices to access programs or resources for work?

Yes, employers will likely need to reimburse employees that are required to use their personal devices for work purposes.

Labor Code Section 2802 requires employers to reimburse employees for all necessary expenses and/or losses incurred in the course and scope of their employment. Courts interpret this statute broadly because California law aims to protect employees from an employer passing on operating costs to them. The requirement to reimburse employees includes expenses such as work-related travel, meals, lodging, cell phone usage, training expenses and more. 

If an employee is required to use a personal device such as a cell/smart phone, tablet or computer to access company programs or resources (email, payroll/timekeeping platforms, etc.) then the employer needs to reimburse the employee for the use of their device. 

It’s not always clear how to determine reimbursable expenses when the employee is using a device for company business and personal business. In a commonly cited case, a California Court of Appeal ruled that that an employer must reimburse an employee for “some reasonable percentage” of the employee’s cell phone bill if the employee is required to use a personal cell phone to make work-related calls; this is true even when the employee did not incur an extra expense by making the work calls because they had an unlimited data plan (Cochran v. Schwan’s Home Service, Inc., 228 Cal.App.4th 1137 (2014)). The court didn’t explain how to determine what a reasonable percentage is.

Under current law, if employers require an employee to use devices to access employer resources, employers may want to consider issuing company-owned and maintained devices to employees for such purposes to avoid potential reimbursement disputes. If they would prefer to require employees to use their own devices, they should consult with legal counsel to help determine how best to comply with California reimbursement requirements.  

Read more about Expense Reimbursement in the HR Library.