Know your rights
Your Workplace Rights in California, Whatever Your Immigration Status
California labor law protects every employee. SB 294 now requires your employer to tell you so in writing, every year.
The Short Answer
Minimum wage, overtime, breaks, safety, discrimination, and retaliation protections apply regardless of immigration status. Threatening an employee’s status for asserting these rights is itself unlawful.
What SB 294 Requires From Your Employer
- An annual written know your rights notice to all employees by February 1, on the state template.
- Your right to designate an emergency contact by March 30.
- A duty to notify that contact if you are arrested or detained at work.
Scope, stated plainly. SB 294 is a notice statute. It creates paper duties and useful evidence, not a new standalone damages lawsuit. The claims live in the underlying rights the notice describes.
The Rights the Notice Describes
- Wage rights, including minimum wage, overtime, and breaks. Wage and hour · Overtime calculator
- FEHA protections, including national origin and immigration status discrimination. National origin discrimination
- The right to make safety complaints without punishment.
- The right to organize with coworkers.
Immigration Threats Are Retaliation
This is the core of the page. Threatening to report your status, contacting or threatening to contact immigration authorities, or demanding new documents in response to a complaint is unlawful retaliation under Labor Code sections 244 and 1019. It carries license consequences for the employer and civil claims for the employee.
The scenarios we see: a threat after asking about overtime, after a workers compensation claim, after refusing unsafe work, or after a conversation about pay.
Does My Status Limit What I Can Recover?
Honestly: wage recovery for work you actually performed does not turn on your status. There are remedy edges around reinstatement and some front pay, and those are navigated case by case rather than answered in advance.
Filing Safely, and What Agencies Do Not Ask
Complaints to the Labor Commissioner and the Civil Rights Department, the state agencies that handle wage and discrimination claims, do not require you to disclose immigration status in order to file.
And the consultation itself is confidential. Attorney client confidentiality has no status exception. We name that fear directly because it is the most common reason people never call.
My Employer Never Gave the SB 294 Notice
A missing notice is three things at once: an enforcement hook, evidence of a broader noncompliance culture, and a good reason to ask what else is missing. Wage statements and break records are usually the next place to look.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I be fired for asking about the notice?
Asserting SB 294 rights is protected activity. Firing you for it creates a retaliation claim.
Does my employer have to warn me before an immigration audit?
AB 450 imposes some notice duties on employers.
Is my consultation confidential even if I am undocumented?
Yes. Attorney client confidentiality has no status exception.
Employment Law Resources
- SB 294, the Workplace Know Your Rights Act
- Labor Code section 1019, immigration related unfair practices
- California Labor Commissioner, immigrant worker rights
Tell Us What Happened
One business day for a response. You pay nothing unless we win.