Reporting Time

Getting Paid When a Scheduled Shift Is Cut Short or Cancelled

California reporting time pay protects you when you show up for a scheduled shift but the employer does not provide the work. If you report as expected or required and are sent home early or given less than half of your scheduled hours, you may be owed pay for time you did not actually work. The rule discourages employers from over-scheduling and then sending people home without compensation.

If you were regularly sent home early, or called in only to be turned away, your rights may have been violated.

How Reporting Time Pay Works

When you report to work as required and are furnished less than half of your usual or scheduled shift, your employer must pay you for half the scheduled shift, but never less than two hours and never more than four hours, at your regular rate of pay. For example, if you were scheduled for eight hours and sent home after one, you are generally owed four hours. If you were scheduled for six hours and sent home right away, you are generally owed three. If you are required to report a second time in the same workday and given less than two hours of work, you are owed two hours for that second reporting.

On-Call and Call-In Scheduling

Reporting time pay is not limited to physically showing up. In Ward v. Tilly’s, a California court held that requiring employees to call in a couple of hours before a possible shift to learn whether to come in can count as reporting, so that being told not to come may trigger reporting time pay. On-call scheduling apps and last-minute call-in requirements can create these obligations.

When Reporting Time Pay Does Not Apply

Reporting time pay is not owed in every situation. It generally does not apply when operations cannot begin or continue because of threats to employees or property or a recommendation of civil authorities, when public utilities fail, or when the interruption results from an act of God or another cause outside the employer’s control. It also does not apply to employees on paid standby, to a regularly scheduled shift of less than two hours, or when an employee chooses to leave early or does not report at all.

Common Reporting Time Violations

Reporting time violations usually show up on slow days and cancelled shifts. Common examples include:

• Being sent home early on a slow day with no minimum pay
• Arriving for a scheduled shift that was cancelled without notice
• Being called in and then turned away with little or no work
• Holding an on-call shift open and receiving nothing when it is cancelled
• Being paid only for the few minutes actually worked

What You Can Recover

If your employer failed to pay reporting time you were owed, you may be able to recover those wages plus interest, along with waiting time penalties when amounts are unpaid after you leave, wage statement penalties, civil penalties under the Private Attorneys General Act, and your attorney’s fees and costs. Rounding and off-the-clock issues, which are different from reporting time, are covered on our Pay for All Time Worked page.

You generally have three years to pursue these claims under the Labor Code, and up to four years under the state’s unfair competition law. Acting promptly helps preserve schedules and time records.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is reporting time pay?

It is pay you are owed when you report for a scheduled shift but the employer provides less than half of it, so that you are compensated for showing up even though the work was not there.

How much reporting time pay am I owed?

Half of your scheduled shift, but never less than two hours and never more than four hours, at your regular rate of pay. A second reporting in the same day with little work carries a two-hour minimum.

Do on-call or call-in shifts count?

They can. Under Ward v. Tilly’s, being required to call in shortly before a shift to find out whether to work can count as reporting, so being told not to come may trigger reporting time pay.

When does reporting time pay not apply?

It generally does not apply when work is interrupted by threats, utility failures, acts of God, or other causes outside the employer’s control, for paid standby, for shifts regularly under two hours, or when you choose not to work.

My employer only pays me for the minutes I actually worked. Is that legal?

Often not. If you reported as scheduled and were furnished less than half your shift, the two-to-four-hour reporting time rule usually applies, and paying only for minutes worked can be a violation.

Schedule Your Free Consultation

At Righetti Law in San Francisco, our attorneys represent employees in California state and federal courts and have decades of experience handling wage-and-hour and class action matters. We have recovered millions for our clients in court and in settlement.

Your consultation will be confidential, and we will not contact your employer.

Call our firm at 415-983-0900 for a complimentary, confidential consultation. You may also complete our online contact form.