Introduction In California, not all employees are created equal when it comes to overtime pay, meal and rest breaks, and other wage...

Hourly employees make up a large portion of California’s workforce — from restaurant servers and retail clerks to warehouse workers and part-time professionals.

Imagine this: you get dressed, battle traffic, show up to work on time—only to be sent home after 15 minutes because business is slow. In most states, you’d just lose out on those hours. But not in California.

California law requires almost all employers to carry workers’ comp insurance, even if they have just one employee. Failure to do so is a criminal offense and can result in steep fines or even jail time.

In recent years, a quiet revolution has been brewing across California’s job sites, warehouses, classrooms, and coffee shops. Workers from every industry—whether white-collar professionals or hourly wage earners—are increasingly turning to unions and collective organizing to demand better wages, benefits, and working conditions.

In California, employees have strong legal protections when it comes to receiving their final wages after leaving a job.

In California’s diverse workforce, immigrants are the backbone of many industries—agriculture, construction, hospitality, healthcare, and tech among them. Yet for thousands of immigrant workers, discrimination in the workplace remains an all-too-common reality.

If you’ve been punished at work for standing up for your rights, you might be a victim of workplace retaliation — and under California law, that’s illegal. Retaliation can take many forms, some subtle and others more obvious, but all can seriously impact your career and well-being.

California has some of the most employee-friendly labor laws in the country—especially when it comes to meal and rest breaks. In 2025,...