Federal WARN Compliance Doesn’t Mean You’re Covered in California
Employers planning a layoff often check their headcount against the federal WARN Act’s 100-employee threshold, confirm they are under it, and move forward.
That check answers the wrong question in California. The California WARN Act, Lab. Code §§ 1400 through 1408, applies to employers with 75 or more employees, counting part-time workers and looking back twelve months to the facility’s peak headcount. An employer comfortably under the federal 100-employee line can still be squarely inside California’s 75-employee line.
The gap widens from there. California’s mass-layoff trigger is a flat count of 50 or more employees let go within 30 days, with no percentage-of-workforce alternative. The federal Act allows a 50-to-499-employee layoff to escape coverage if it represents less than a third of the workforce at that site; California offers no such out. California also treats a relocation of 100 or more miles as its own independent trigger, something the federal Act does not recognize at all.
The exceptions narrow the same way. Federal law allows shortened notice for a faltering company, an unforeseeable business circumstance, or a natural disaster. California’s only statutory exception is a physical calamity or act of war. An employer that reasonably relies on the federal unforeseeable-business-circumstance exception can still be exposed under state law, because California never adopted that exception in the first place.
Effective January 1, 2026, Senate Bill 617 also added new required content to the California notice itself, including whether the employer will coordinate services through a local workforce development board and information about the CalFresh food assistance program.
If your restructuring plan cleared federal WARN and stopped there, California’s separate 75-employee threshold, mass-layoff test, and relocation trigger may still apply. Running the plan through both statutes before notices go out is worth a short conversation.
Contact Michael Trust Law, APC for a no-charge initial consultation. The facts determine what needs to be addressed – and how much of a conversation that takes.
This post shares general information based on common patterns I see in California workplaces. It is not legal advice, does not create an attorney-client relationship, and outcomes depend on specific facts – no lawyer can guarantee a result. Past results do not guarantee or predict future outcomes. AI may have been used to create this post. All content reviewed by a CA attorney before publication.