What is “reporting time pay?”

“Reporting time pay” is a form of wages that compensate employees who are scheduled to report to work but who are not put to work or furnished with less than half of their usual or scheduled day’s work because of inadequate scheduling or lack of proper notice by the employer. The provisions of the law regarding reporting time pay are as follows:

  1. Each workday an employee is required to report to work, but is not put to work or is furnished with less than half of his or her usual or scheduled day’s work, he or she must be paid for half the usual or scheduled day’s work, but in no event for less than two hours nor more than four hours, at his or her regular rate of pay.
  2. If an employee is required to report to work a second time in any one workday and is furnished less than two hours of work on the second reporting, he or she must be paid for two hours at his or her regular rate of pay.

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We invite your attention to our disclaimer.

Reporting time pay constitutes wages.  (Murphy v. Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc. (2007) 40 Cal. 4th 1094).  Thus, failure to pay all reporting time pay due at the time of employment termination may be the basis for waiting time penalties pursuant to Labor Code § 203.  The IWC’s purpose in adopting reporting time pay requirements was two-fold:  “to compensate employees” and “encourag[e] proper notice and scheduling”.  Id. at pp. 1111-1112.   In Ward v. Tilly’s, Inc. (2019) 31 Cal.App.5th 1167, the court held physical reporting was not required in order to come within the reporting time pay provision.  Types of situations that trigger reporting time pay include:

  1. Physically appearing at the workplace at the shift’s start;
  2. Presenting themselves for work by logging on to a computer remotely;
  3. Appearing at a client’s job site;
  4. Setting out on a trucking route;
  5. Or as in Tilly’s, by telephoning the store two hours prior to the start of a shift.

Id. at . p 1185.


Exceptions to the requirement for reporting time pay found in IWC Orders 1-16, Section 5(C) are as follows:

  1. When operations cannot begin or continue due to threats to employees or property, or when civil authorities recommend that work not begin or continue; or
  2. When public utilities fail to supply electricity, water, or gas, or there is a failure in the public utilities, or sewer system; or
  3. When the interruption of work is caused by an Act of God or other cause not within the employer’s control, for example, an earthquake.

The reporting time pay provisions do not apply to employees on paid standby status or when an employee has a regularly scheduled shift of less than two hours, such as a relief cashier who works only during a one-hour period in the middle of the day.

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