California Wage Order 5: Public Housekeeping (Hotels, Restaurants, Health Care)

California Wage Order 5 (IWC Order No. 5-2001) sets the wage, hour and working-condition rules for the “public housekeeping” industry: restaurants, bars, hotels and motels, apartment and office buildings, hospitals and nursing homes, private schools with dorms or dining, janitorial and landscaping companies, and veterinary and animal care businesses. It reaches a wide range of jobs, covering cooks, servers, housekeepers, front-desk clerks, nurses, caregivers, janitors and everyone else on those payrolls.

Order 5 also contains special rules, including 12-hour shifts and meal waivers for health care workers (shared with Order 4), a 14-day overtime period for hospitals, rules for 24-hour residential care and ambulance crews, and the $20 fast food minimum wage. Labor Code section 1198 makes the order’s standards binding.

This guide explains who Order 5 covers, which numbers later state law has updated, and what each section means for you, based on the official text posted by the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) as of October 2026.

Who Wage Order 5 covers

Order 5 covers any business that provides meals, housing or maintenance services, either as its primary business or as an incidental operation of a business not covered by another industry order. The order lists:

1. restaurants, night clubs, taverns, bars, cocktail lounges, cafeterias and similar places serving food or drink on the premises;
2. catering, banquet and lunch services;
3. hotels, motels, apartment houses, rooming houses, camps, trailer parks, and office or loft buildings;
4. hospitals, sanitariums, rest homes, child nurseries and homes for the aged that offer board or lodging along with care;
5. private schools, colleges and universities that provide board or lodging;
6. businesses that develop, maintain or clean grounds or facilities, such as janitorial and landscaping companies; and
7. veterinary and other animal care services.

The Labor Commissioner’s guide, Which IWC Order?, adds property management, pest and termite control, tree services, day camps, preschools and bakeries or ice cream shops with tables for customers. It also stresses that Order 5 covers every classification of employee in an Order 5 business. In a hospital, that includes the people who assist patients, clean rooms, do laundry, drive or keep the books.

Key fact

Which wage order applies? Industry vs. occupation

Order 5 is an industry order, so it takes priority over the occupation orders. A nurse in a hospital is under Order 5, while a nurse in a doctor’s office is under Wage Order 4. Order 5 has one twist: it reaches meals, housing and maintenance services that are incidental to another business only if that business is not covered by another industry order. A factory cafeteria stays under Wage Order 1, but a private school with dorms is under Order 5. When a concessionaire runs the dining hall, the concessionaire’s workers are under Order 5 even if the rest of the campus is classified otherwise. The Labor Commissioner’s guide is persuasive, not binding on courts.

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Exemptions

• Executive, administrative and professional employees are exempt from sections 3 through 12 only if they meet the duties tests and earn at least twice the state minimum wage for full-time work: $70,304 a year in 2026 and $72,384 from January 1, 2027. Registered nurses and pharmacists are not exempt professionals unless they qualify as executives or administrators. “Kitchen manager” and “assistant manager” titles do not by themselves make you exempt; see misclassified exempt employees.
• Student nurses in accredited programs are covered only by sections 1, 2, 4, 10 and 20.
• Outside salespersons, the employer’s parent, spouse or child, and national service participants are excluded; government employees are covered only by sections 1, 2, 4, 10 and 20.

Overtime and Order 5’s special schedules

The baseline matches Labor Code 510: 1.5 times the regular rate over 8 hours a day, 40 a week and for the first 8 hours on the seventh consecutive day, and double time over 12 hours a day and over 8 on the seventh consecutive day. Ten-hour alternative workweeks require a two-thirds secret-ballot vote after written disclosure and a meeting at least 14 days before the vote. Order 5 then adds:

• Health care 12-hour shifts. Hospitals, nursing and residential care facilities, home health agencies and certain clinics may adopt, by election, workdays of more than 10 and up to 12 hours within a 40-hour week without daily overtime. Hours over 12 are double time, hours over 40 are time and a half, and shifts must be at least four hours. Mandatory work beyond 12 hours in 24 is allowed only in a declared health care emergency (or up to 13 hours if your relief is a no-show without two hours’ notice), never beyond 16 hours in 24 without voluntary mutual agreement, and never more than 24 consecutive hours without 8 hours off. See 12-hour shifts and alternative workweeks.
• Hospitals’ 14-day period. A hospital or an institution caring for sick, aged or mentally ill residents may, by agreement before the work, use a 14-day period instead of the 7-day workweek and pay time and a half for hours over 80 in that period. How this interacts with the Labor Code’s daily overtime rule is technical, so have any “8/80” arrangement reviewed.
• 24-hour residential care for children. Staff directly responsible for children in 24-hour residential care may be paid time and a half over 40 hours a week, double time over 48 hours a week and over 16 hours a day, with at least 8 hours off after 24 consecutive hours; sleeping time is not counted.
• Ambulance crews on 24-hour shifts may agree in writing to exclude up to three one-hour meal periods and a scheduled sleep period of up to 8 hours from daily hours, if the employer provides adequate dormitory and kitchen facilities.
• Live-in employees. If you must live on the premises, time spent carrying out assigned duties counts as hours worked.

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Meal and rest breaks

The meal-period section printed in Order 5 describes the first 30-minute meal period after five hours of work (waivable by mutual consent only if six hours or less completes the day). Labor Code 512 also requires a second meal period after 10 hours, waivable only if you work 12 hours or less and did not waive the first; where the Labor Code gives more, it controls.

• Health care meal waiver: health care employees working more than 8 hours may voluntarily waive one of their two meal periods in a written agreement signed by both sides, revocable on one day’s written notice. Labor Code 516(b) confirms this is valid.
• Residential care: staff in 24-hour residential care for children, the elderly, blind or developmentally disabled may be required to take on-duty meals only when needed to meet program standards and they either eat with residents and get the same meal free, or are in sole charge of residents and get a free meal on the day shift. Staff in sole charge may be asked to stay on site during rest breaks, but an interrupted break must be replaced.

Rest periods are 10 paid minutes per four hours or major fraction. For each workday a meal or rest period is not provided, the employer owes one additional hour of pay at your regular rate (Labor Code 226.7). A busy dinner rush is not an exception. See meal and rest break premiums.

By the numbers$20

Minimum wage: general, fast food and health care

Who	Minimum wage (current law)
Most Order 5 workers	$16.90/hour in 2026; $17.40 from January 1, 2027; higher city rates control (by city)
Fast food restaurants (national chains with more than 60 establishments)	$20.00/hour since April 1, 2024 (Labor Code 1474–1475)
Covered health care facilities (SB 525)	$19.28 to $25.00/hour from July 1, 2026, depending on facility type (details)

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Split shifts, reporting time, uniforms and meal credits

Restaurants and hotels often schedule split shifts. When your day is broken by an unpaid, non-working gap set by the employer (other than a real meal or rest break), Order 5 requires one hour’s pay at minimum wage in addition to the minimum wage for that day, unless you live at the workplace. Reporting-time pay applies when you are sent home with less than half your scheduled shift: half the scheduled day, at least two and no more than four hours, at your regular rate. See split-shift and reporting-time pay.

💡 Example: Maria, a server paid the state minimum of $16.90, works 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., seven hours with an unpaid three-hour gap. She is owed 7 × $16.90 = $118.30 plus a split-shift hour of $16.90, or $135.20 for the day. Her tips cannot be credited toward either amount (Labor Code 351).

• Uniforms: a required uniform of distinctive design or color must be provided and maintained by the employer.
• Meal credits: an employer may credit meals against minimum wage only under a voluntary written agreement, only for bona fide meals consistent with your shift, never for meals you did not receive, and only up to DIR’s 2026 amounts: breakfast $6.10, lunch $8.42, dinner $11.28. Lodging is capped at $79.46 a week for a room occupied alone.
• Shortages and breakage: no deductions for walkouts, broken dishes or register shortages unless caused by a dishonest or willful act or gross negligence.

Under Labor Code 351, tips are the sole property of the employees they were left for; see our guide to California tip pooling rules.

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What to do if your employer is violating Order 5

1. Record your hours, breaks and split shifts; your employer cannot forbid a personal record (Labor Code 1174).
2. Keep schedules, pay stubs and any meal-credit or meal-waiver agreements.
3. Estimate your claim with our wage and hour calculator.
4. Act within three years for most wage claims (Code of Civil Procedure 338).
5. Get advice before choosing a Labor Commissioner claim or a lawsuit.

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Frequently asked questions

Does Wage Order 5 cover hospital office staff?

Yes. The Labor Commissioner says Order 5 covers all classifications of employees in an Order 5 business, including bookkeepers, drivers and laundry workers at a hospital.

Can a hospital schedule me for 12-hour shifts without overtime?

Only through a valid 12-hour alternative workweek adopted by secret ballot. Hours over 12 are double time, hours over 40 a week are time and a half, and mandatory extra hours are limited.

Do restaurants have to give a second meal break?

Yes. Even though the printed Order 5 meal section does not describe it, Labor Code 512 requires a second 30-minute meal period for work periods over 10 hours, waivable only in limited cases.

Can my employer deduct my staff meal from my pay?

Only with your voluntary written agreement, only for real meals you actually receive, and only up to the DIR limits.

Are hotel and janitorial workers covered?

Yes. Hotels and motels, and businesses that clean or maintain buildings and grounds, are expressly listed. In-house laundry for a hotel or hospital is covered by Order 5, while a standalone laundry is covered by Wage Order 6.

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