Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Wage Cut notification

Depends upon what you mean by "advance." Unless the employee is working under a contract that specifies the pay rate and gives some permanency to the employment - such as a union contract with seniority provisions or a personal contract to be the local manager at $X for two years - most employees are "at will," meaning they can be let go without prior notice.

If the employer is able to let you go without prior notice, the employer is also able to ler you go and rehire you on new terms. That's more or less what courts have held. Consequently, the employer can say to you, "John, we're cutting your pay from $20 to $18 effective immediately because of the lousy economy" or words to that effect.

What the employer cannot do is hand you a paycheck today that's calculated at $18 an hour when you had no warning and assumed, with good reason, that you were at your old rate of $20.

So, notice must be in advance or at the moment the rate is reduced, but not retroactive at all.