Which California HR laws apply at my headcount?

This is the hub for the HR requirements for small businesses in California, and for every compliance question on Insights. Find your headcount, then follow the links to the rules that matter most at that size. Each rule names its statute so you can read the source yourself and bring it to your attorney.

Working in a Bay Area city adds local rules on top of these: higher minimum wages, local sick leave and scheduling laws. See the Bay Area city employment laws hub. If you think in funding rounds rather than headcount, startup HR by funding stage covers the same thresholds. San Francisco adds its own rules, see San Francisco employer rules. Rules that do not turn on headcount, such as California’s protection for off-duty cannabis use under Government Code 12954, are covered in the cannabis guide.

From the first employee

• Minimum wage, overtime, meal and rest breaks (the state lunch break law in California), and itemized wage statements (Labor Code 226). The meal and rest break rules, and what PAGA adds.
• Final pay on the last day for a firing or layoff, with waiting-time penalties for late pay (Labor Code 201 to 203). Final paycheck deadlines.
• No noncompetes, and from January 1, 2027 no stay-or-pay repayment clauses, in employment contracts (Business and Professions Code 16600 and 16608). What that means for offer letters.
• Paid sick leave of at least 40 hours or five days a year (Labor Code 245 and following).
• Protection from harassment under FEHA (Government Code 12940(j)).
• A written workplace violence prevention plan for most employers (Labor Code 6401.9).
• CalSavers registration if you offer no retirement plan.
• Lactation accommodation (Labor Code 1030).
• Workers’ compensation insurance, even for one part-time employee (Labor Code 3700). What it costs and what skipping it risks.
• Reimbursement of necessary work expenses, including a share of a personal phone bill (Labor Code 2802). What counts for home internet and phone.
• The salary history ban, and a pay scale for any applicant who reasonably requests one (Labor Code 432.3).

At 5 employees

• FEHA’s full ban on discrimination and retaliation (Government Code 12940).
• Up to 12 weeks of job-protected family and medical leave under CFRA (Government Code 12945.2).
• Up to four months of pregnancy disability leave. How CFRA, pregnancy disability leave and paid sick leave stack.
• Harassment prevention training every two years: two hours for supervisors, one hour for everyone else (Government Code 12950.1). What that training has to include.
• The Fair Chance Act: no criminal history questions before a conditional offer (Government Code 12952).
• Up to five days of bereavement leave (Government Code 12945.7) and up to five days of reproductive loss leave (Government Code 12945.6). From January 1, 2027, bereavement leave also covers the death of a designated person: someone related by blood or whose association is the equivalent of family (CalChamber).

At 15 employees

• A pay scale in every job posting. From the first employee, a pay scale is also owed to any applicant who reasonably asks and to any current employee for their own position (Labor Code 432.3). What applies just below 15.
• Federal Title VII and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

At 20, 50, and 75

• 20: federal COBRA and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Below 20, Cal-COBRA generally covers continuation through the insurer.
• 50: federal FMLA, and the Affordable Care Act coverage requirement for employers with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees.
• 75: Cal-WARN, requiring 60 days’ notice before a mass layoff, relocation, or closure at a covered establishment (Labor Code 1400 and following). What the 2026 notice must include.

At 100 employees

• An annual pay data report to the California Civil Rights Department, showing pay by job category, race, ethnicity, and sex (Government Code 12999).
• The federal EEO-1 report.

A pay data report shows the same patterns an equal pay claim would. Organizations approaching 100 get more out of a range structure built on purpose than out of a first report that surprises them. My HR software series shows which tools support these headcount thresholds. Nonprofits have extra wrinkles, covered in HR rules for California nonprofits. For the order I would work through the new 2027 laws, see the California employer checklist before January 1, 2027.

How is headcount counted?

Count everyone on payroll, including part-time employees, and in several California rules, employees outside the state. Misclassified contractors count too, which is why a classification review and a headcount check belong together. The thresholds are not all measured the same way: some use employees in the current or preceding calendar year, some count only full-time equivalents, and Cal-WARN looks at a single establishment over the prior year. When you are close to a line, check the statute that defines it. For a calendar of the dates, see do you need a California HR compliance checklist.

For how to put the obligations into a working routine, see the HR foundations system for small employers.

Where do small organizations usually fall behind?

Most HR requirements for small businesses are missed in the same few places. The pattern I see most is a company that crossed 5 employees a year ago and never scheduled harassment training, or crossed 15 and kept posting jobs without ranges. Nothing about the business felt different on the day it happened, so nothing changed. An urban organization of 10 to 150 people crosses three or four of these lines on the way up. Plan for the next one before you hire into it, and use a compliance check-up to confirm you caught up on the last one. To see where you stand today, the free California HR compliance checklist filters all 22 items to your exact headcount. Caregiver employers face special rules, see home care overtime in California. Related guides cover menopause at work after the AB 1940 veto, arbitration agreements after AB 2155, probationary periods and Southern California local rules.

Headcount is not the only thing that shapes your obligations in practice. My article on urban and suburban employer HR explains how hours, cash, commutes and multi-city staff change which rules you need first.

For the full list of what changes when a startup adds its 15th employee in Oakland, see my guide to what an Oakland startup must file and adopt by its 15th employee. The same headcount lens applies to a pending sale or a union drive, and my guides to HR deadlines when a small business is sold and union bargaining preparation cover those.

Worker classification applies at every headcount, and a worker-by-worker method for testing contractor status shows how to test each person.

Two 2027 changes have dated guides: pay data report penalties for employers at 100 or more, and designated person bereavement leave for every employer of five or more.

Related reading: The Small Employer HR Field Guide, my book of 13 principles for California employers.

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.

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