Is employee training time paid in California?

Yes. When an employer requires an employee to attend a training, the time counts as hours worked, and an hourly employee has to be paid for it. California does not write its own rule for this. The Labor Commissioner’s enforcement manual says the state follows the federal standards for lectures, meetings and training programs, and it adds that a program failing any one of the federal criteria is hours worked (DLSE Enforcement Policies and Interpretations Manual, sections 46.6.3 and 46.6.5).

The state definition of hours worked also does the work on its own. The manual describes it as time during which an employee is subject to the control of the employer, plus all the time the employee is suffered or permitted to work, whether or not required to do so (section 46.1). A required session is time under the employer’s control. This page covers hourly (non-exempt) employees. Whether someone is exempt turns on separate tests, which the same manual covers in its exemptions chapters.

Only when all four federal criteria are met, which is rare for anything an employer cares enough to schedule. The criteria sit in 29 CFR 785.27 and the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement adopts them.

If any one criterion fails, the time is hours worked. The unpaid category that remains is real but narrow: an optional course on an unrelated subject, taken on the employee’s own initiative or offered voluntarily after hours, where no one is working. The DLSE manual also carves out independent schooling an employee attends on their own initiative (section 46.6.6).

Yes for an hourly employee, because the employer requires it. Government Code section 12950.1 requires employers with five or more employees to provide the training, and the statute sets the hours and timing. Neither the statute nor 2 CCR 11024 spells out who pays or whether the time is compensated, but the Civil Rights Department employer FAQ answers it directly: because the statute says the employer shall provide the training, the cost is the employer’s, and employees may not be required to take it during their personal time.

The Civil Rights Department’s answer and wage law point the same way. An employee who must complete two hours as a supervisor or one hour as an employee, by a deadline the employer sets, is subject to the employer’s control for that time. That makes it hours worked under the definition above. The California requirements are laid out in the harassment prevention training requirements article, and the deadline problem for live sessions is in the California live training mandates guide.

It follows the same rule: if the employer requires it, an hourly employee is paid for the time. Labor Code section 6401.9 requires most California employers to provide training when the plan is first established and annually after that. I read the section for any language on pay or timing and found none. The mention of cost in the section applies to obtaining a copy of the plan, not to the training.

The practical point is the same as above. A session the employer requires is hours worked, and the question of who the training covers is separate. The workplace violence prevention training requirements article covers who must be trained and when, and whether you need both trainings covers overlap with harassment prevention.

Yes, if the employer requires it, because the test is control and requirement, not location. California wage law does not carve out a home laptop, a phone or a self-paced course. The definition looks at whether the employer controls the time or the employee is suffered or permitted to work. A required module that someone finishes at the kitchen table is still required time. This is my reading of the definition, and the manual provisions above do not address home or phone training in terms.

Self-paced courses are where employers slip. A common instruction is “complete the course by Friday.” If the employer does not say when the time is paid, it will usually be done on the employee’s own time, and that is the risk. Give the course a paid window on the schedule. If you tell remote employees to log the time, the logged time is also your record of what was owed. I wrote about how recorded training rarely gets finished in why recorded training does not finish and security awareness training nobody finishes, and a paid completion window is the simplest fix I know.

Travel to a required out-of-town training is hours worked. The DLSE manual says California does not distinguish between normal and out-of-hours travel, and that an employer who requires an employee to attend an out-of-town training session cannot disclaim an obligation to pay for the time spent getting to and from it (section 46.1.1, citing a Labor Commissioner opinion letter).

• Meals: if the employer requires a meal-time training, the employee must be paid at the regular rate, the meal cost is the employer’s, and the time counts toward overtime (section 45.2.6)
• Reporting time pay: a required meeting on a day the employee was not scheduled can trigger reporting time pay. The manual summarizes two Court of Appeal decisions, Aleman v. Air Touch Cellular (2012) and Price v. Starbucks (2011), that turn on whether the meeting was scheduled in advance with a stated length (section 45.1.4)
• After-shift sessions: the manual says a required meeting scheduled to follow the shift immediately triggers no reporting time pay, but those minutes are still hours worked. If an unpaid gap separates the shift from the meeting, it calls for at least two hours of pay for reporting a second time (section 45.1.4)

These are the three situations where an employer who is careful about the main rule still gets caught. I would check each one before I schedule a session.

Unpaid required time can become a wage claim with penalties on top of the wages themselves. The remedies below come from four Labor Code sections, and each applies only when its own conditions are met.

Hypothetical: an employer requires 40 hourly employees to finish a one-hour course at home and does not pay for it. That is 40 hours of required time that did not appear on any pay statement. One missed hour is a small number, and I would still treat it as a pattern, because it repeats every training cycle.

Schedule inside paid hours and say so in the invitation. That one decision removes most of the risk. These are the rules I use when I build a live session for a client team.

1. Put the session on the calendar inside each team’s regular hours, and write “paid working time” in the invitation
2. For shift teams, offer two or more start times so no one is pulled in on a day off. See the next point if a session must run on one
3. If a session falls on a day someone is not scheduled, stop and check reporting time pay before you send the invite
4. Give self-paced modules a paid window on the schedule, not a deadline
5. Keep sign-in sheets and attendance records. The same records satisfy the two-year training documentation rule in 2 CCR 11024
6. Plan across time zones with the rule in mind, so no one’s required session lands in their evening. I make the case in whose morning is it

A live session designed around the workday is also a better session. People who are not fighting for their evening stay in the room.

Is training time paid in California?

Yes, when the employer requires it. Required training is hours worked and must be paid for hourly employees. It can be unpaid only when all four federal criteria are met, which includes the training being voluntary and unrelated to the job.

Do employers have to pay employees for mandatory harassment training in California?

The harassment training statute and its regulation do not spell out pay, but the Civil Rights Department’s employer FAQ says the employer must provide the training, including its costs, and may not require it on personal time. A required session is hours worked, and an hourly employee should be paid for it.

Can an employer require training outside work hours without pay?

Not if the training is required. Outside-hours attendance can be unpaid only when attendance is voluntary, the course is unrelated to the job and no productive work is done.

Is online training taken at home paid time?

If the employer requires it, yes. California wage law turns on employer control and requirement, not on where the employee sits. Give required courses a paid window on the schedule.

Is travel time to a required training paid in California?

For required out-of-town training, the DLSE manual says the employer cannot disclaim an obligation to pay for travel time to and from it.