West Coast Compliance Guide

In 2022, California became the first state to reach a $15 standard minimum wage for large employers Now, at the beginning of 2025, California’s minimum wage hit $16.50 for all employers. In addition to the standard wage rate, the Golden State passed a state-level fast food worker minimum wage of $20.00 and a healthcare worker minimum wage (multiple rates), which went into effect on April 1^st and Oct 16th in 2024, respectfully. Also on the industry wage front, there are some local jurisdictions in California with special minimum wage rates for hotel workers.

Of course, there are two counties in California, Los Angeles and San Mateo Counties, with their own minimum wage rates that apply to the unincorporated areas of their respective counties

Which cities in California have the highest minimum wage?

As of May 2025, there are 38 California cities with their own minimum wage rates and all but one are now above the $17 an hour mark. There are also a handful of cities at or above $19 an hour including:

• Emeryville
• Mountain View
• Sunnyvale
• West Hollywood

Of note, West Hollywood was the first city in California to breach the $19 threshold with a current minimum wage of $19.65, which is the highest in the state. There are also several cities above $18, including Berkeley, San Francisco, El Cerrito, Palo Alto, and Santa Clara.

Finally, as a reminder, California prohibits employers from taking a tip credit so there is no tipped employee wage in California.

California has a multitude of leave laws (paid and unpaid), however, we are only going to address the following two paid leave laws:

• Paid sick leave
• Paid family and medical leave

As is the case with minimum wage, several cities in California also have their own paid leave laws — nine jurisdictions have paid sick leave laws and four have paid sick leave specific only to hotel workers.

Below are a few of the basics for the state paid sick leave and paid family and medical leave laws in California.

Paid Sick Leave

Covered Family Member Summary

• Employee’s child (biological, adopted, foster, step, legal ward or to whom the employee stands in loco parentis and regardless of age or dependency)
• Parent (biological, adoptive, foster, step, legal guardian of employee or employee’s spouse or domestic partner or person who stood in loco parentis when employee was a minor)
• Spouse
• Registered Domestic Partner
• Grandparent
• Grandchild
• Sibling
• Designated person – someone identified by the employee at the time the employee requests paid sick days

Eligible Reasons for Use

Employee or family member’s health condition including diagnosis and preventive care, and time off for employee for domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking.

Date Accrual Begins Summary

At start of employment.

Accrual Rate Summary

1 hour for every 30 hours worked.

Max Accrual Cap Summary

80 hours or 10 days

Waiting Period Before Use Summary

Eligible for use on 90th day of employment.

Paid Family and Medical Leave

Covered Employee Summary

An employee includes any individual providing labor or services for remuneration. To be eligible for benefits, an employee must have been paid wages from employment of at least $300.

Does not include an independent contractor that is: 1) is free from the control or direction of the hiring entity; 2) performs work outside the usual course of hiring entity’s business; and 3) customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation or business of the same nature as that involved in the work performed.

Covered Family Member Summary

• Child – biological, adopted, foster, step, legal ward, child of a domestic partner or the person to whom the employee stands in loco parentis;
• Parent – biological, foster, adoptive, in-law (including parent of spouse or domestic partner), step, legal guardian, or person who stood in loco parentis to employee as a child
• Grandparent – parent of employee’s parent
• Grandchild – child of employee’s child
• Sibling – biological, adopted or affinity through common legal or biological parent
• Spouse
• Domestic partner

Eligible Reasons for Leave Summary

• Serious illness of employee
• Caring for a seriously ill family member
• Caring for family member due to active military duty of certain family members
• Bonding with new child through birth adoption or placement

Employee Protections Summary

Employees shall take Paid Family Leave concurrently with FMLA and CRFA and are therefore afforded rights and protections under those laws. It shall be unlawful to refuse to hire, discharge, fire, suspend, expel or discriminate an employee for using leave or providing information regarding the family care and medical leave or participating in related proceedings.

Job Protection Summary

Employees should take paid family leave concurrently with FMLA and CRFA and if so, be given the same rights and protections under those laws. Employer shall maintain health care benefits and restore employee to the position, rights and benefits earned prior to taking leave.

Effective January 1, 2023, employers with 15 or more workers are required to include the pay range for positions in job postings. In addition if an applicant requests it, employers must provide the pay range for the position to the applicant..

The information which must be provided in the job posting is the salary or hourly wage range that the employer reasonably expects to pay for the position. The law also applies to third parties that post jobs on behalf of the employer.

Lastly, there are now expanded pay data reporting requirements that requires employers with 100 or more workers to provide specific pay data annually to the California Civil Rights Division. These employers are required to disclose mean and median hourly rates by demographic group to better identify gender and race-based pay disparities.

Learn about other jurisdictions in our Pay Transparency Guide or view our interactive map for pay transparency laws by state.

California also has requirements for employers regarding meal and rest breaks for nonexempt employees.

Meal Breaks

Starting with meal breaks, shifts of five hours or more require a 30-minute work-free meal break. It must start by the fifth hour of work. If the employee’s shift is six hours or less, a meal break may be waived by mutual agreement between the employer and employee.

Meanwhile, for shifts more than 10 hours but less than 12 hours, a second meal break is required. This must be provided by the end of the 10th hour. Employees can waive one meal break but not both.

The penalty for employers that fail to prove proper meal breaks is one hour of pay.

Rest Breaks

In California, the rest break rules are generally:

• 10 minutes for every four hours worked
• Must be uninterrupted, relieved of all duties
• No on-call status for the employee
• Employees have the freedom to leave the premises
• Generally, the meal break should be taken on either side of meal break or middle of shift

Again, the penalty for failure to provide a rest break is one hour of pay.

Washington’s minimum wage remains the highest in the nation and is currently set at $16.66 as of Jan. 1, 2025.

Washington’s minimum wage law was enacted through a ballot referendum in 2016. It called for scheduled increases starting in 2017. The final scheduled bump to $13.50 was in 2020.

Following a few years of scheduled increases, in 2021, Washington moved to indexed rates based on the applicable Consumer Price Index.

It’s set to go up again on Jan. 1, 2026, and, depending on the Consumer Price Index, it will continue to compete with California, Connecticut, and New Jersey for the highest state minimum wage rate in the U.S. next year.

Meanwhile, seven cities in Washington and one county have adopted their own minimum wage ordinances:

• Bellingham 
• Burien 
• Everett 
• Renton 
• SeaTac 
• Seattle 
• Tukwila 
• King County 

Notably, six out of the eight jurisdictions currently have minimum wage rates in place that are above the $20 threshold.

On May 1, 2025, the minimum wage in Bellingham will increase to $18.66 per hour.  Then on July 1, 2025, the newest city to pass their own minimum wage ordinance, Everett, will increase its city wage rate to $20.24 for large employers (more than 500 employees) and $18.24 for other covered employers (15-500 employees or annual gross revenue over $2 million).

Like California and Oregon, Washington prohibits a lower minimum wage for tipped employees.

Like California and Oregon, Washington has both paid sick leave and paid family and medical leave (PFML).

Washington has three cities with paid sick leave ordinances: Seattle, SeaTac, Tacoma. SeaTac’s paid sick leave law applies to hospitality and transportation workers only.

To help employers maintain compliance, below are some of the basics of both state-level laws.

Paid Sick Leave

Covered Employee Summary

All employees are covered, unless an exception applies. Those employees not covered are as follows:

• Certain farm laborers
• Individuals employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity or in the capacity of outside salesperson
• Volunteers of an educational, charitable, religious, state, local governmental body or agency, or nonprofit organization
• Certain publication workers
• Carriers subject to regulation by Part 1 of the Interstate Commerce Act
• Individuals engaged in forest protection and fire prevention activities
• Certain workers working in the development of character or citizenship or promoting health or physical fitness or providing or sponsoring recreational opportunities or facilities
• On-call employees who spend most of their working time on-call and individuals whose duties require residing/sleeping at the place of employment
• Vessel operating crews of the Washington state ferries operated by the department of transportation
• Certain junior hockey players
• Constructions workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement.

Covered Employer Summary

All private employers are subject to the paid sick leave law.

Covered Family Member Summary

• Child (biological, adopted, foster, step, or child to whom employee stands in loco parentis, is legal guardian or is de facto parent, regardless of age or dependency)
• Parent of employee or employee’s spouse or registered domestic partner (biological, adoptive, de facto, foster parent, step-parent, legal guardian, or person who stood in loco parentis when employee was minor child)
• Spouse
• Registered domestic partner
• Grandparent
• Grandchild
• Sibling

Eligible Reasons for Sick Leave Summary

• Employee’s illness, injury, or medical condition including diagnosis and preventive care
• To care for a family member with an illness, injury, or medical condition including diagnosis and preventive care
• When employee’s place of business is closed by order of public health official for any health-related reason
• When an employee’s child’s school or place of care is closed by order of public health official for health-related reason
• Absences that qualify as safe time absences due to domestic violence such as: preparing for or participating in a civil criminal proceeding, medical or mental health treatment, services from a domestic violence shelter, crisis center, or other social services center, relocating or other actions to increase safety

Date Accrual Begins Summary

At start of employment.

Accrual Rate Summary

1 hour for every 40 hours worked.

Max Accrual Cap Summary

No applicable provision.

Paid Family and Medical Leave

Covered Employee Summary

Employees who have worked at least 820 hours during the qualifying period and whose work is localized in Washington.

Covered Family Member Summary

• Child – including biological, adopted, foster, step, child’s spouse, or child to whom employee stands in loco parentis, is a legal guardian or de facto parent, regardless of age or dependency status
• Grandchild
• Grandparent
• Parent – including biological, adoptive, de facto, foster, step or legal guardian of an employee or employee’s spouse, an individual who stood in loco parentis to employee when employee was a child
• Sibling
• Spouse – including a husband, wife or state-registered domestic partner
• Individual who regularly resides in the employee’s home or where the relationship creates an expectation that the employee care for the person

Eligible Reasons for Leave Summary

Employee is entitled to paid family and medical leave for the following:

• Employee’s own serious health condition
• To provide physical or psychological care for a family member of employee due to a serious health condition
• To bond with employee’s child after birth, placement or adoption
• Any qualifying exigency due to employee’s spouse, child, or parent is on covered active duty
• Bereavement leave following death of a child after birth, placement or adoption

Weeks Allowed Per Type of Leave 

In any benefit year, employees are allowed to take 12 weeks for family leave or medical leave and may be extended to 14 weeks if employee experiences a serious health condition with a pregnancy that results in a period of incapacity. 

Up to 16 weeks of combined family and medical may be taken in any benefit year and may be extended to 18 weeks if employee experiences a serious health condition with a pregnancy that results in a period of incapacity. 

Effective Jan. 1, 2023, employers in Washington State with 15 or more workers must disclose the salary range, or wage scale, and a description of all benefits and other compensation in job postings.

A “job posting” is defined as:

“Any solicitation intended to recruit job applicants for a specific available position, including recruitment done directly by an employer or indirectly through a third party, and includes any postings done electronically, or with a printed hard copy, that includes qualification for desired applicants.”

Employers must also provide salary range or wage scale upon request to employees offered a new position, promotion or internal transfer.

Meal Breaks

Employees in Washington are entitled to a 30-minute meal period during any scheduled work shift that exceeds five hours of work. The meal period must start between the second and fifth hour from the beginning of the employee’s shift.

An employee working 3 or more hours of overtime must be allowed at least one 30-minute meal period prior to or during the overtime period.

Employers should note that in Washington there are different meal period requirements for minors.  Minors under 16 are entitled to a meal period of 30 minutes for every four hours worked. Minors under 18 are entitled to a 30-minute meal period after five hours of work.

Rest Breaks

For rest breaks in Washington, employees are entitled to 10 minutes for every four hours worked. Minors are entitled to a rest break of at least 10 minutes for every two hours worked. If possible, the rest break should occur in the middle of the work period. No employee should be required to work more than 3 hours without a rest period.