Labor laws in California are complex, with strict rest and meal break policies state-wide, and Fair Workweek ordinances being implemented in several Californian cities. Labor law compliance in California is critical for restaurants, as each labor exception must be paid out to employees—often titled as “premium pay events.” Here are the California labor laws your restaurant must adhere to.
Employers must:
June 2017 · 56+ global employees or 20+ Emeryville employees
Emeryville’s Fair Workweek ordinance, enacted in June of 2017, is another set of California labor laws that apply to retail and fast food establishments. Any restaurants in Emeryville must pay attention to both state and city laws when scheduling their staff.
Employers must:
March 2016 · 20+ locations · 20+ employees in San Francisco
Labor compliance laws in San Francisco, include the Predictable Scheduling and Fair Treatment for Formula Retail Employees Ordinance (or FREROs) and covers employees in a subset of companies that have 20+ locations worldwide and employ over 20 people in the city of San Francisco.
Here are the labor compliance requirements of these ordinances. Employers must:
7shifts provides the tools restaurants need to ensure labor law compliance in California—from San Francisco to Emeryville—with flexible scheduling tools, transparent communication, and robust reporting tools.
Flexible scheduling
7shifts’ drag-and-drop schedule builder makes it simple to schedule shifts in accordance with the law. Get ultimate visibility into each employee’s shifts and use sales and weather forecasts to build the most efficient schedules.
Overtime alerts
While scheduling, managers will receive alerts of any overtime they’ve built into the schedule. Additionally, managers receive a notification when an on-duty employee is about to go into overtime.
Electronic schedule publishing
Easily publish new schedules to employees via SMS text, push notification, or email with 2 weeks’ notice. Employees can view their shifts directly on their mobile device.
Shift swapping
Employees can voluntarily offer up shifts or accept extra shifts from coworkers with managerial approval.
Time-off and availability requests
Schedules are infinitely flexible for your staff with time-off and availability requests submitted directly through the app. Managers can approve, deny, and manage requests on-the-go.
Scheduled break management
Schedule custom and mandatory breaks in any shift and get notifications to remind employees to take them.
Split shift detection
Split shift punches are detected automatically when an employee punches in with 7shifts, and the associated “split shift premium” is fed directly into the labor exception report.
Built-in attestation
When an employee clocks out using 7punches, they’ll be asked if they took their required meal and rest breaks or waived them, so you can accurately track your labor law compliance.
Maintain compliance records
Keep records of all scheduled shifts, punch data, and account activity for three years and beyond.
Generate labor exception reports
Easily access automated labor exception reports with type and fee amount of each exception. With the added visibility, you’ll stay more compliant with local laws.
Language support
7shifts is currently available in English, Spanish, and French. Simply select your preferred language, and all text in the 7shifts web app will be displayed in this language.
Trusted by California’s top restaurants
Employee scheduling for restaurants is simple with our drag-and-drop tool that factors in overtime, availability, and regional labor laws. Once the employee schedule is built, it can be published directly to your staff’s email or mobile device so they always know when they’re working.
You'll spend 80% less time building perfect employee schedules that work for your restaurant.
Explore scheduling toolsGroup chats · Direct messaging · Announcements · Shift feedback · Manager log book
Keep your team informed with built-in chat, announcements, and shift feedback. Share photos, GIFs, emojis, and text through one-on-one or group messages, or update the whole team with company Announcements.
Be proactive with employee engagement with store-specific stats like lates and no shows, a real-time leaderboard of most and least-engaged employees, and automated feedback surveys to keep a pulse on employee satisfaction.
Take your communication 'to go' with our free mobile app for employees and managers.
Explore communication toolsPOS integrations · Weekly labor budget tool · Reports · Engage dashboard
Connect your systems—from dozens of supported POS and Payroll systems—to optimize your team management. Integrate your POS to track real-time variances in sales and labor and make smarter business decisions that lower labor costs. Guide your scheduling with sales forecasts to ensure targets are hit, eliminate un-budgeted labor hours with schedule enforcement, and access detailed reports to identify trends and optimize your restaurant.
Use staff engagement insights and automated feedback from staff to improve workplace satisfaction and productivity.
Explore labor complianceMulti-location support · On-demand support · Knowledge base articles & videos
With your labor costs in check, staff engaged, and restaurant schedule managed, you can focus on the things that matter—serving your guests and making your restaurant thrive.
Devote more time to supporting your team, expanding your menu, or growing your sales. With unlimited employee and location support, 7shifts is here to help you succeed—whatever that looks like for you.
If you ever need a hand, our support team is only a chat, email, or phone call away.
Explore support resourcesSelect your POS and Payroll system from 7shifts' 20+ integrations to create labor-perfect schedules and simplify your management by making better use of the systems you already know and trust.
LA has nearly 30,000 restaurants—which means competition is tough. Stay profitable (and competitive) by optimizing your labor with a platform like 7shifts.
Employee scheduling is easy with 7shifts’ intuitive drag-and-drop builder that factors in staff availability, time-off, and California labor compliance. Build simple schedules and share them instantly with your team through our free mobile app.
Integrate your restaurant POS to receive detailed reports on your labor cost so you can schedule employees more effectively and run a smoother operation. Ensure every employee schedule hits or exceeds your labor targets by building yours based on staff availability, weekly shift requirements, and sales (and weather) forecasts. Track variances between projected and actual labor and sales to identify trends and make smarter business decisions on-the-go.
Thousands of LA restaurant pros use 7shifts to save money, stay labor compliant, and engage their employees to reduce turnover. Los Angeles restaurants that create employee schedules with 7shifts find they cut their scheduling time by 80%, reduce employee calls and texts by 70%, and trim their labor costs by up to 3%. With your restaurant scheduling accounted for, you can spend more time engaging your staff and serving your guests.
Explore the rest of the 7shifts platform
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