Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, LOCAL LEGISLATION—CALIFORNIA—Travel time now included in working time for overtime pay purposes for in-home supportive services and waiver personal care services, (Sep 23, 2025)

By Patricia K. Ruiz, J.D.

The legislation specifies the apportionment of appropriated funds to categories of state employees.

Legislation signed by California Governor Gavin Newsom would appropriate $372 million from the state’s General Fund to supplement the state’s appropriation to the Public Employees Retirement Fund (PERF). The legislations requires this supplemental payment to the PERF to be apportioned to specified state employee member categories.

Moreover, this legislation addresses the impact of federal Medicaid Program provisions regarding the exclusion of travel time from the calculation of the total weekly hours worked within a workweek. Existing law specifies that only federal law and regulations regarding overtime compensation apply to the aforementioned providers of authorized services. This bill, however, requires the hours worked by a provider in the performance of services or travel time that exceed 40 hours in a workweek to be compensated at one and 1 1/2 times the provider’s hourly wage, and would, for the purposes of overtime compensation, disregard whether federal financial participation is available for travel time.

Apportionment. The supplemental payments cannot exceed $174,523,000 for the state miscellaneous member category, $10,296,000 to the state industrial member category, $20,479,000 to the state safety member category, and $166,702,000 to the state peace officer/firefighter member category. The bill requires the appropriation to be applied to the unfunded state liabilities for the state employee member categories that are in excess of the base amounts for the 2025-26 fiscal year. The bill requires the Department of Finance to provide the controller with a schedule establishing the timing of specific transfers.

Public Employees Retirement Law. The Public Employees Retirement Law (PERL) created the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS), which provides pensions and benefits to state employees and their beneficiaries. It also prescribes the rights and duties of employers participating in the system. Under PERL, benefits are funded by investment income and employer and employee contributions deposited into the Public Employees Retirement Fund, a continuously appropriated trust fund. PERL describes the methods for calculation and payment of the state employer contributions for employees who are PERS members and provides for an annual adjustment of the state’s contribution in the budget and quarterly appropriations to the PERF from the General Fund and other funds responsible for payment of the employer contribution.

PERL makes additional General Fund appropriations to the PERF for the 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25 fiscal years. Supplemental payments connected with appropriations for these fiscal years are to be apportioned to the state employee member categories generally and to specified state employee member categories.

Other provisions. The legislation authorizes a successor agency for the Humboldt No. 1 Fire Protection District and the City of Eureka Fire Department for providing the defined benefit plan or formula the employees received from their respective employer prior to annexation. The legislation also adds clarifying language regarding the hiring of fire fighters; allows for bypassing of the mediation process for certain bargaining contracts; makes changes to the timeline for withholding of 1991 Realignment funds; and requires travel time to be included in working time for overtime pay purposes for in-home supportive services and waiver personal care services. The legislation allows for banking information to be provided to the State Department of Social Services’ payment processing contractor in certain circumstances; requires the State Department of Social Services to contract for payrolling or related functions; makes legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of Humboldt; makes legislative findings in connection with public records and open meetings.

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