It was dead so I sent someone home an hour into their shift. Do I owe them anything?
Yes. Reporting time pay applies when an employee shows up for a scheduled shift and is given less than half of it. You owe half the scheduled shift, with a minimum of two hours and a maximum of four — so for a typical shift cut after one hour, that is usually two to four hours of pay.
The rule exists because the employee arranged their day, travelled in, and gave up other options. It is triggered by the shift being cut short, not by anything they did.
The amount is half the scheduled shift, floored at two hours and capped at four, paid at the regular rate. A worker sent home an hour into an eight-hour shift is owed four.
There are narrow exceptions — a genuine threat to safety, a public utility failure, an act of God. A slow day is not one of them, and neither is over-scheduling.
Calling someone in for an on-call shift and telling them not to come has also been held to trigger the rule in California, where the call-in itself was required.
Last reviewed 2026-08-09. Informational only — not legal advice. California rules change; confirm against the current source before acting.