What are the rules regarding reporting time or "show-up" pay in California?

To guarantee at least partial compensation for employees who report to their job expecting to work a specified number of hours but are deprived of that amount of work because of inadequate scheduling or lack of proper notice by the employer, California law requires that employers pay nonexempt employees for certain unworked but regularly scheduled time in addition to the hours the employee actually works. See, IWC Orders 1-16, Section 5. Such payments are known as reporting-time pay. Reporting-time pay for hours in excess of the actual hours worked is not counted as hours worked for purposes of determining overtime.

The following are specific requirements for reporting-time pay:

• 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, the employee must be paid for half the usual or scheduled day’s work, but in no event for less than two hours or more than four hours, at the employee’s regular rate of pay.

• 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 the employee’s regular rate of pay.

Exceptions to the requirement for reporting-time pay, found in IWC Orders 1-16, include the following situations:

• When operations cannot begin or continue due to threats to employees or property, or when civil authorities recommend that work not begin or continue.

• When public utilities fail to supply electricity, water or gas, or there is a failure in the public utilities or sewer system.

• 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.

Source: California Department of Industrial Relations

The California Court of Appeal has clarified the scope of an employer’s obligation to pay reporting time and split shift premiums for short meetings scheduled in advance. The Court ruled that an employee was not entitled to reporting time pay for attending scheduled meetings that ran shorter than expected because he worked at least half the scheduled time, even though the employee worked less than two hours. This is contrary to the long-held enforcement position of the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.

In addition, a Feb 2019 Court of Appeal decision found that employees must be paid for certain on-call shifts if they are required to check in to see if they're needed for a scheduled shift but are told not to report to work.