On-Call and Standby Pay

If you require a non-exempt employee to be “on-call” or on “standby status”, that time may qualify as hours worked and need to be paid. Whether you must pay the employee generally will depend on the amount of control you exert over the employee; in other words, how much you restrict their free time while they are on-call or on standby.

Under California law, hours worked is defined as “the time during which an employee is subject to the control of an employer, and includes all the time the employee is suffered or permitted to work, whether required to do so or not.” If employees are under your control, it is likely that you will have to pay them even if they are on-call or on standby and