What does California require when your employees speak more than one language?

Many California workplaces run in more than one language. The person at the register, the line cook and the delivery driver may all be reading your paperwork in a second or third language, or not reading it at all. California law asks employers to meet people where they are for several of the most important documents. The rules differ by document, and the difference matters. This is part 4 of the Urban and Suburban Employer Series, which opens with part 1. The others are part 2, part 3, part 5, part 6 and part 7.

Multilingual teams are common in urban corridors and in suburban offices alike, and I do not assume which languages any community speaks. You ask your people and write it down. I grew up in Oakland, I have worked with employers in both settings and I am not an attorney. I believe translation is part of compliance and part of respect. A policy a person cannot read does not protect them or you.

Which employee notices must be in the language your employees use?

The wage theft prevention notice is the clearest case. Under Labor Code section 2810.5, the notice must be in writing and in the language the employer normally uses to communicate employment-related information to that employee. If you speak and text with a worker in Spanish, the notice goes in Spanish.

The notice covers the employee’s pay rate and how it is calculated, overtime rate, the regular payday, your legal and trade names, your address and phone number, your workers’ compensation carrier and paid sick leave rights. The Labor Commissioner publishes a template, but the statute is the rule. For employees you manage in a language other than English, check that the notice you handed over at hire was in that language. If it was not, replace it and keep a signed copy.

For the full list of required notices and postings, my California HR compliance checklist shows where this sits among your other obligations.

Does safety training have to be in the employee’s language?

For workplace violence prevention, yes, in the sense the statute states. Labor Code section 6401.9 requires that training materials be appropriate to the education level, literacy and language of the employees. It also requires that each training session allow interactive questions and answers with a person who knows the plan. A video in a language no one on the shift speaks does not meet that standard.

For the injury and illness prevention program, 8 CCR section 3203 requires a communication system in a form readily understandable by all affected employees. Cal/OSHA-funded guidance from the state’s Commission on Health and Safety and Workers’ Compensation says training should be given in the language and manner trainees understand. That guidance is not the regulation itself, so I cite it as guidance. It still tells you how the agency reads the rule.

• Deliver safety training in the language each employee uses most comfortably at work.
• Use a person who can answer questions in that language, not only a recording.
• Keep training records, which Cal/OSHA’s workplace violence fact sheet says must be kept for at least 1 year.

My guide to the workplace violence prevention plan covers the plan and training in detail.

When must a harassment policy be translated?

It must be translated when a large enough share of your workforce at a facility speaks another language. 2 CCR section 11023, the Civil Rights Council’s regulation on harassment policies, says that where 10 percent or more of the people at a facility speak a language other than English, the policy must be translated into each language spoken by at least 10 percent of the workforce.

The policy must also be distributed in a way that makes sure employees receive and understand it. Methods include a printed copy with a signed acknowledgment, email with an acknowledgment, an intranet posting with tracking and a discussion at hire. A translated policy plus a signed acknowledgment in the same language is the strongest record.

Separately, Government Code section 12950 requires posting the state’s discrimination and harassment poster and distributing the Civil Rights Department’s fact sheet or your own equivalent. The Civil Rights Department provides these in English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Korean, among others. Use those official versions rather than writing your own.

For training, Government Code section 12950.1 sets the hours and timing. The statute does not state a language rule, and the department’s free courses are offered in six languages. My view is that training your people cannot follow does not do the job, so I recommend the course in the language they use. My guide to harassment prevention training for small employers covers who must be trained and when.

What should you translate first?

Start with the documents where California states a rule or where the risk to people is highest, then work outward. Here is the order I use.

• The wage theft prevention notice, because the statute names the language.
• Safety and injury prevention training, because people can be hurt when instructions are not understood.
• Workplace violence prevention training, because the statute requires language-appropriate materials.
• The harassment policy and the state’s poster and fact sheet, where the 10 percent rule applies.
• The employee handbook, so people can read the rules they are held to.
• Everything else: schedules, benefit summaries, forms and internal notices.

If you are not ready to translate everything, do the first four before anything else. For the handbook, my California employee handbook template is a starting point, and the handbook gap checker shows which sections you are missing. UHR also publishes Spanish pages under /es/, which can help when you explain a policy to a Spanish-speaking team.

Keep a simple file as you go. For each document, note the languages it exists in, the date each version was issued and who reviewed the translation. If a notice or training is ever questioned, that file shows you tried to reach people in the language they use, and it makes your next update faster. A small employer can keep it in one shared folder and a one-page index.

Can you use machine translation for HR documents?

Use it as a first draft, never as the final version of a legal notice. Machine translation is fast and often good, and it still makes errors in legal terms, pay language and tone. A wrong word in a wage notice or a safety instruction creates the problem you were trying to avoid.

My practice is simple. Have a qualified bilingual person review any HR document before you hand it to employees. That reviewer should know the terms of the workplace, not only the language, because “overtime,” “meal period” and “at-will” are terms of art. Where the state publishes an official translation, use it and do not rewrite it.

• Draft with a translation tool if you like, then have a qualified bilingual reviewer correct it.
• Keep the English and translated versions side by side with the same effective date.
• Ask employees to sign the version in the language they read.
• Re-review the translation each time the English text changes.

How do you find out which languages your team uses?

You ask, and you write it down. Do not guess from a name, an accent or a neighborhood. A short form at hire and a yearly check-in is enough: “Which language do you prefer for work documents and training? Do you want any document in a second language?” Record the answer in the personnel file, and use it for the wage notice, training and policy delivery.

Count the answers by site. The 10 percent harassment-policy rule is measured at a facility, so a simple tally by location tells you where translation is required and where it is simply a good idea. Recheck the count when you hire in bulk, open a site or change your staffing mix.

This week, ask each employee which language they prefer for work documents, tally the answers by site and pull the wage notice you gave each person to confirm it was in that language. If you want someone to compare your documents against your workforce, my California HR audit does that. Part 7 of this series gives you a ten-question method to find the other gaps.

Language access is part of system three in inclusive HR in practice.

Sources

• Labor Code section 2810.5, wage theft prevention notice, read October 25, 2026
• Labor Code section 6401.9, workplace violence prevention plan and training, read October 25, 2026
• 8 CCR section 3203, Injury and Illness Prevention Program, read October 25, 2026
• 2 CCR section 11023, harassment prevention policy, read October 25, 2026
• Government Code section 12950, posting and fact sheet and section 12950.1, training, read October 25, 2026
• Cal/OSHA, Workplace Violence Prevention in General Industry fact sheet, read October 25, 2026
• CHSWC, Communicating with employees about safety (fact sheet), read October 25, 2026

Data current as of October 2026. Sources are linked where each figure appears.

McKinley holds a J.D. but is not a licensed attorney. Articles here are general information, not legal advice. For your specific situation, talk with an employment attorney.