Guides

Santa Monica restaurant pay rules (2026): wages, tips, scheduling and sick leave

Mays TeamNovember 2, 2026
The Advanced settings of a Santa Monica location's Labor & compliance card in Mays: meal-break waivers honored, waived meal breaks dismissed automatically, and a question at clock-out asking whether the employee took all their meal and rest breaks

Santa Monica's minimum wage is $18.47 an hour since July 1, 2026, set to match unincorporated Los Angeles County's (Santa Monica). California allows no tip credit, so servers start there too. Two rules matter more to a restaurant here than the rate: a restaurant run with a hotel pays the hotel workers' $25.00, and a service charge goes to the staff who serve the customer, kitchen included, never to managers.

This page puts what a restaurant or café in Santa Monica owes in one place: the city's own rules first, then the California and federal rules that apply in Santa Monica as everywhere else in the state, two example weeks with the math shown, and what Mays does with each. Every figure links to the official page it comes from.

Checked October 5, 2026: we read every Santa Monica figure on this page on its official source that day. Santa Monica's minimum wage changes on July 1, 2027; the new rate had not been published when we checked (Santa Monica).

This is general information, not legal advice. Whether a rule applies can depend on your business's size and your own facts; the note at the end says more.

Santa Monica pay rules at a glance

As of November 2, 2026:

Rule

Santa Monica

Minimum wage

$18.47 an hour, since July 1, 2026

Tipped employees

The full minimum wage: no tip credit in Santa Monica

Next change

Changes on July 1, 2027 (new rate not published yet)

Overtime

1.5× the regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek, and after 8 hours in a day; double time after 12 hours in a day; special rules for the seventh day in a row in a workweek (California and federal law)

Fair workweek scheduling

No Santa Monica or California law in our data

Paid sick leave

Santa Monica's own ordinance; see Paid sick leave below

Sources: Santa Monica; DLSE, minimum wage; DLSE, overtime.

Who Santa Monica's rate covers: every employer, large or small (the two rates are now the same), for employees who work in Santa Monica.

Other Santa Monica rates:

  • hotel workers, including a restaurant attached to, leased from and run with a hotel (the rate matches the City of Los Angeles hotel rate, without its health benefit payment): $25.00 an hour

Santa Monica vs. California: what the city changes

Where Santa Monica sets a rule of its own, it applies on top of California's, and an employer follows whichever gives the employee more. Here are the two side by side:

Rule

California

Santa Monica

Minimum wage

$16.90 (DLSE, minimum wage)

$18.47 (Santa Monica)

Tipped employees

No tip credit (DLSE, minimum wage)

No tip credit, as statewide

Next change (as of October 5, 2026)

$17.40 on January 1, 2027 (DIR, 2027 minimum wage)

Changes on July 1, 2027 (new rate not published yet) (Santa Monica)

Paid sick leave

1 hour per 30 hours worked (alternative accrual allowed if it yields 24 h by day 120 and 40 h by day 200) (DLSE, paid sick leave)

1 hour per 30 hours worked (or front-loaded) (Santa Monica)

Fair workweek scheduling

No state law in our data

No city law in our data

Our data has no Santa Monica rule of its own on overtime, breaks, tip pools or food handler training, so the California and federal rules below apply in Santa Monica as they do across the state. For California's rules in full, with their own worked examples, see California restaurant pay rules (2026).

What you must pay tipped staff in Santa Monica

California doesn't allow a tip credit (DLSE, minimum wage), so servers, bartenders and baristas who get tips must be paid at least the full $18.47 an hour in wages, and their tips are all theirs, on top. There's no tipped cash wage and no weekly tip make-up to calculate.

What you must pay non-tipped staff in Santa Monica

Cooks, dishwashers, prep cooks, and cashiers or counter staff who don't get tips are paid like any other hourly employee:

  • At least $18.47 an hour for every hour worked (Santa Monica). No tip credit applies.
  • Overtime is at least 1.5 times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek or 8 in a day. At $18.47 an hour, that's $27.705 (DLSE, overtime).

A first job

Someone working for the first time in a kind of work they have no experience in can be paid 85% of the minimum wage for their first 160 hours (Santa Monica).

Worked examples (made-up numbers)

The names, hours and tips below are made up. The rates are the ones that apply in Santa Monica as of November 2, 2026.

A server's week

Sam is a server in Santa Monica. For a 30-hour week you pay him at least 30 × $18.47 = $554.10 in wages, before tips. His tips are all on top, whatever they come to; there's no make-up to calculate.

A cook's week with overtime

Ana is a line cook in Santa Monica paid the minimum wage, $18.47 an hour. She works five 9-hour days: 45 hours.


Hours

Rate

Pay

Regular hours

40

$18.47

$738.80

Overtime hours (daily and weekly)

5

$27.705 (1.5 × $18.47)

$138.53

Total

45


$877.33

California counts overtime by the day too: hours past 8 in a day are paid at 1.5 times the regular rate, and hours past 12 at double time, however short the week (DLSE, overtime). Overtime is counted by the workweek, and hours can't be averaged across two weeks: a long week earns overtime even if the next one is short (US DOL, overtime). Bonuses can change the rate too; see Time clock, breaks and overtime: first-month payroll mistakes to avoid.

Scheduling rules in Santa Monica

We found no Santa Monica or California fair workweek law in our data: nothing here makes you post schedules a set number of days ahead or pay a premium for changing them. Breaks and overtime still shape the schedule (see below).

Santa Monica has a paid sick leave ordinance of its own (Santa Monica):

  • How it's earned: 1 hour per 30 hours worked (or front-loaded).
  • Who it covers: every employer, for full-time, part-time and temporary employees who work at least two hours in a week in Santa Monica.
  • What else it requires: the cap is 72 hours at a business with 26 or more employees in Santa Monica and 40 hours at one with 25 or fewer. Unused accrued leave carries over up to the cap (front-loaded leave doesn't have to), and paid sick leave must be kept apart from vacation.

California's paid sick leave law applies in Santa Monica too (DLSE, paid sick leave): Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act. Since January 1, 2024, employers must allow use of at least 40 hours or 5 days per year (whichever is more). Employer may cap total accrual at 80 hours / 10 days; carryover required under accrual plans. Up-front (frontload) plans must grant the full 40 h / 5 days at the start of each year. Local ordinances (SF, LA, Oakland, etc.) may require more. For each term, how fast leave is earned, how much can be used, how much carries over and how soon a new hire can use it, follow whichever of the two is more generous.

Tip pools, overtime and breaks in Santa Monica

These are California's rules, with the federal ones where California sets none, and they apply in Santa Monica as they do across the state:

  • Tip pools: California allows mandatory tip pools that are "fair and reasonable" among staff in the "chain of service". Owners, managers and supervisors can never share, even if they serve tables. Employers may not deduct card-processing fees from tips, must pay card tips by the next regular payday, and cannot take a tip credit (DLSE, tips). Under federal law, the business, its managers and supervisors never keep employees' tips, and with a tip credit a pool you require can include only staff who customarily and regularly receive tips (US DOL, tips).
  • Service charges: A mandatory "service charge" may or may not be a gratuity; it depends on whether customers perceive and intend it as one (DLSE, tips).
  • Overtime: 1.5x for hours over 8 and up to 12 in a workday, over 40 in a workweek, and the first 8 hours on the 7th consecutive workday. 2x for hours over 12 in a workday and over 8 on the 7th consecutive workday. Overtime is owed whether or not it was authorized. Alternative workweek schedules adopted under the Labor Code have different rules (DLSE, overtime).
  • Meal breaks: 30-minute meal period when the work period is more than 5 hours, provided no later than the end of the 5th hour; a second 30-minute meal period when working more than 10 hours, no later than the end of the 10th hour. First meal may be waived by mutual consent only if the whole workday is 6 hours or less; second may be waived only if total hours are 12 or less and the first was not waived. Unpaid only if the employee is relieved of all duty and free to leave the premises; an on-duty (paid) meal period is allowed only when the nature of the work objectively prevents relief and there is a written agreement the employee can revoke in writing at any time. Missed, late or short meal period = 1 additional hour of pay at the regular rate per workday. Restaurants are covered by IWC Wage Order 5 (public housekeeping). All employer sizes (DLSE, meal periods).
  • Rest breaks: Net 10-minute paid rest period per 4 hours worked "or major fraction thereof" (DLSE treats more than 2 hours as a major fraction), as near the middle of each work period as practicable. Not required when total daily work time is under 3.5 hours. So: 1 break for 3.5 to 6 hours, 2 for more than 6 up to 10, 3 for more than 10 up to 14. Rest time counts as hours worked. Missed rest period(s) = 1 additional hour of pay at the regular rate per workday (one premium per day for rest, separate from the meal premium). Employees cannot trade rest breaks to leave early (DLSE, rest periods).
  • Minors' breaks: No separate California rule for minors; the adult rules above apply to them too (IWC Wage Order 5).

Service charges in Santa Monica

The city's ordinance goes further than California's: service charge money goes to the employees who contributed to the customer's service, back-of-house staff included, never to anyone whose main role is managing or supervising, and you can't take card processing fees out of it (Santa Monica FAQ).

Other rules that affect pay in Santa Monica

  • Reporting-time pay: If an employee reports but is not put to work, or gets less than half the usual or scheduled day's work, pay half the scheduled day: at least 2 and at most 4 hours at the regular rate (never below minimum wage). If an employee is called back a second time in one workday and gets less than 2 hours, pay 2 hours. Exceptions: threats to employees or property, civil-authority recommendation, utility failure, or an Act of God or other cause outside the employer's control. It also does not apply to paid standby or to regularly scheduled shifts under 2 hours. Reporting can happen by phoning in before a shift (Ward v. Tilly's) (DLSE, reporting time pay).
  • Split shifts and spread of hours: A split shift is a schedule interrupted by unpaid, non-working periods set by the employer, other than bona fide rest or meal periods. Each workday with one earns an extra hour of pay at the minimum wage (the state or local rate, whichever is higher), except for employees who live at the place of employment. Pay above the minimum wage counts toward it, so the employer owes only what the day's pay falls short of the minimum wage for every hour worked plus that extra hour. Picking up an extra shift voluntarily doesn't count (DLSE, split shifts).
  • Food handler training: Every food employee needs approved food-safety training. Who: food handlers at food facilities, within 30 days of hire; card valid 3 years (Health & Safety Code § 113948).

How Mays handles this

Mays runs the schedule, time clock, tip pool and payroll export for each location. For a restaurant in Santa Monica, that means:

  • The minimum wage for the address. Turn on Labor law compliance and Mays reads each location's minimum wage from its address: a location whose city is Santa Monica gets Santa Monica's $18.47. It warns you when a position's default wage, someone's hourly wage or a punch is below it, and never blocks the save. The rate for July 1, 2027 isn't published yet; once Mays has it, admins get a reminder 30 and 7 days before.
  • Paid sick leave per location. With Labor law compliance on, the Sick category under Scheduling → Settings → Time off & PTO accrual shows the paid sick leave law at each location's address, and Apply these rules fills in its figures, starting with at least one hour for every 30 worked (Santa Monica). Where Santa Monica's and California's figures differ, it takes the more generous one. If the location's address doesn't name Santa Monica, pick Santa Monica under Where this location is. Everyone who works hours earns it from approved punches, managers included, and a figure Mays doesn't have is left open for you to fill in from the official page.
  • Overtime by the address. Staff clock in on their phone, a shared kiosk or an NFC tag, and timesheets run by pay period. Overtime is counted by the workweek, and with Labor law compliance on, by any daily, double-time and seventh-day rule California sets too, which Mays reads from the location's address; the schedule's labor cost, the reports and the pay summary all include it.
  • Reporting-time pay. Turn on Labor law compliance and Mays applies California's rule at each location from its address and records it when a punch is clocked out, each in its own column of the pay summary and the payroll export.
  • A tip pool per location. Split pooled tips by hours worked, equally or by FTAR score, and choose which positions receive. Leave managers and admins out of the pool is on by default, so leave it on. California doesn't allow taking card processing fees out of tips, so leave Deduct the card processing fee from card tips off: with Labor law compliance on, the card warns you if it's on. Each person's share appears in the Tip Payouts report and the payroll export.
  • Food handler cards. Turn on Labor law compliance and keep each person's card in Mays with its expiry date and a photo. Each location shows who has no card by the 30-day deadline after their hire date and whose card is about to expire, and Mays reminds the employee and their managers before a card expires.
  • A hotel restaurant's rate. For a restaurant run with a hotel, turn on Use a different minimum for this location on the location's Labor & compliance card and enter the hotel workers' rate: the below-minimum warnings use it instead of $18.47.
  • The city's service-charge rules are yours to apply. With Labor law compliance on, the tip pool card's notes on service charges say that Mays doesn't track city and county ordinances, so split service charges Santa Monica's way yourself.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from these official pages, as they read on the date shown.

This page is general information, not legal advice. Laws change, and coverage rules (your business's size, whether federal law covers you) decide which of them apply. Check the pages above, and ask an employment lawyer or accountant about your situation.

Run Santa Monica payroll on the right numbers

Give each location its Santa Monica address, turn on Labor law compliance so the minimum wage, overtime and sick leave rules follow it, and let the time clock do the counting. Then payroll is an export, not an evening.

Start your free trial: 30 days, every module, no card needed. Running more than one city? Each location reads its own rules.