398 | 2025 Cal-Peculiarities ©2025 Seyfarth Shaw LLP www.seyfarth.com The negligence claims also failed because, for various reasons, it is neither necessary nor appropriate to impose on payroll companies a tort duty of care as to obligations owed to an employee under the Labor Code and Wage Orders. First, the law already provides employees with complete remedies against the employer for any wage loss. Second, a deterrent against payroll company misconduct already exists in the contractual obligations owed to the employer. Third, the payroll company has no special relationship with the employee. Fourth, imposing a duty of care on the payroll company could induce it to place the employee’s interests above those of the employer with whom the payroll company has contracted. Fifth, imposing such a duty of care would complicate wage and hour litigation and make it harder to settle.65 (See § 7.21.) 16.4 Executive Compensation Under the California Corporate Disclosure Act, publicly traded corporations must report to the Secretary of State the salary and certain stock option rights of the five most highly compensated executives who are not on the board of directors.66 16.5 Filing Job Applications California once required employers, that require job applicants to sign an application for employment, to file the application form with the DLSE.67 That provision was repealed in 2004. 16.6 EITC Information Pursuant to the California Earned Income Tax Credit Information Act, California employers must notify all employees of both the federal and state Earned Income Tax Credit.68 Specifically, employers must, within a week of providing an employee any annual wage summary (e.g., Form W-2), deliver to or mail the employee written notice regarding the employee’s possible eligibility for earned income tax credit under federal and state law.69 Merely posting this information on an employee bulletin board would not satisfy this notification duty.70 1 See http://www.edd.ca.gov/payroll_taxes/new_hire_reporting.htm (visited Mar. 3, 2025) (defining a “rehired” employee as “any employee who is rehired after a separation of at least 60 consecutive days”). 2 See http://www.edd.ca.gov/payroll_taxes/new_hire_reporting.htm (visited Mar. 3, 2025); see also Unemp. Ins. Code § 1088.5. 3 Id. 4 For forms, see https://www.edd.ca.gov/pdf_pub_ctr/de340.pdf (visited Mar. 3, 2025) and https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/pdf_pub_ctr/de34.pdf (visited Mar. 3, 2025). 5 Unemp. Ins. Code § 1088.5(e). 6 Unemp. Ins. Code § 1088.5(d)(3) (further requiring that “[a]ny employer that transmits reports pursuant to this paragraph shall notify the Secretary of Health and Human Services in writing as to which state the employer designates for the purpose of sending reports”). 7 Lab. Code § 2810.5. 8 Lab. Code § 2810.5(a)(1)(H) (employer must provide notice “[t]hat an employee: may accrue and use sick leave; has a right to request and use accrued paid sick leave; may not be terminated or retaliated against for using or requesting the use of accrued paid sick leave; and has the right to file a complaint against an employer who retaliates”). 9 Lab. Code § 2810.5(b). 10 Lab. Code § 2810.5(c). 11 Lab. Code § 2810.5(a)(3). 12 Id. 13 See www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/LC_2810.5_Notice.pdf (visited Mar. 3, 2025). 14 See http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/FAQs-NoticeToEmployee.html (visited Mar. 3, 2025). 15 Form DE 542, https://edd.ca.gov/pdf_pub_ctr/de542.pdf (visited Mar. 3, 2025). 16 Unemp. Ins. Code § 1088.8.
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