Paying work expenses out of your own pocket? What your California employer may owe you back

Generally, any necessary expense or loss that comes directly from doing your job or following your employer’s instructions. Labor Code section 2802 puts that cost on the employer. If the job reasonably required the expense, the cost is generally the employer’s, not yours.

Common examples include a personal phone your job requires you to use, driving your own car for work, required uniforms and tools, and items your employer told you to buy. Home-office costs can count too, depending on what the job required. The rule also covers losses, not only purchases, such as personal property damaged or lost as a direct result of doing your job.

You generally can’t give up this right. An agreement to pay your own work costs is generally void under California law. If your employer treats these costs as “part of the job,” a legal professional can help you work out what’s actually owed.

If your job requires you to use it for work calls, generally yes, even when your bill would be the same anyway. In 2014 a California appeals court held that when employees must use their personal cell phones for work calls, the employer has to reimburse a reasonable percentage of the bill. It doesn’t matter whether you have an unlimited plan, whether someone else pays the bill, or whether the work calls added anything to it.

The same reasoning may apply to work texts and apps your job requires, though that decision addressed calls. The law doesn’t set a fixed percentage; the amount depends on the facts, such as how much you use the phone for work. If you’ve never been reimbursed for a phone your job depends on, a legal professional can help you estimate what a reasonable share would be.

You’re generally owed for the driving you do for the job, but your normal commute between home and your regular workplace usually isn’t reimbursable. Driving between job sites, to client meetings, or on errands your employer sends you on, such as a bank deposit or a supply run, is generally reimbursable.

Many employers reimburse at the IRS standard mileage rate: 72.5 cents a mile for the first half of 2026 and 76 cents a mile from July 1 through Dec. 31, 2026. California’s Labor Commissioner generally treats that rate as covering driving costs unless the facts show your actual costs were higher. California law doesn’t require that exact rate. An employer can pay your actual costs, pay a per-mile rate, or pay a lump sum, but if what it pays falls short of your necessary costs, it generally owes the difference.

The IRS rate is meant to cover more than gas, including depreciation, maintenance, tires, and insurance, so a gas-only payment can fall short. The record can make or break these claims. Keep a log with the date, where you went, why, and the miles, even if your employer never asked for one. A free case review can help you turn that log into a number.

If your employer requires or expects you to work from home, it may owe you for the necessary costs of that work, such as a share of your internet service. Courts haven’t settled exactly which home costs count, or how to split costs you also use personally. In 2023 a California appeals court held that an employer couldn’t defeat a work-from-home expense claim just because the state’s stay-at-home order sent employees home. What matters is whether the expenses actually came from doing the job.

The reasoning courts use for phones may apply to home internet even if your bill didn’t go up, but no California appeals court has squarely decided that. Equipment the job requires, like a headset or a monitor, may be reimbursable if your employer doesn’t provide it. If your employer requires some remote days, the same rules may apply to those days. If working from home is purely your choice and an office is open to you, the costs may be harder to call necessary, and a fancier chair than the job needs is harder to claim. If your company went remote and never set up a stipend, that may be worth a closer look in a free case review.

Generally not for required uniforms or tools, and training is a closer question. If your employer requires a uniform, meaning clothing of a distinctive design or color rather than basics like a plain white shirt or dark pants, it generally has to provide it and maintain it.

Tools and equipment the job requires are generally the employer’s cost as well. A narrow exception lets an employer require workers who earn at least twice the minimum wage to provide and maintain the hand tools customary in their trade. Training your employer requires for the job is generally its cost. Training for a license the law requires you to hold, or training you choose on your own, usually isn’t.

Your employer also generally can’t take money from your paycheck for cash shortages, breakage, or lost equipment unless the loss came from dishonesty, a willful act, or gross negligence. An unlawful deduction can be a separate violation on top of the unreimbursed expense. If money has been coming out of your check for things the job requires, a legal professional can tell you whether that was allowed.

If you win, you can generally recover what you reasonably spent on necessary work expenses, plus interest and your reasonable attorney’s fees. If a company policy caused the expense, your coworkers may have the same claim. When a court or the Labor Commissioner awards reimbursement, interest is generally added at 10% a year from the date of each expense. Depending on the legal claims used, you can generally look back three or four years.

If a company requires employees to use their own phones, cars, or home offices and has no reimbursement policy, the claim may be brought for a group of employees. Whether a group case works can depend on how uniform the requirement is. A PAGA claim is another route: an employee who personally experienced the violation within the past year can seek civil penalties on behalf of the state, themselves, and coworkers affected by the same violation. Our page on PAGA claims in California explains how that works.

If you were labeled an independent contractor but should have been treated as an employee, you may be able to recover your work expenses too; our employee misclassification lawyers handle those claims. Our unpaid wages lawyers may be able to estimate what a policy like this is worth across a workforce.

Start keeping records today, even for things you’ve never been reimbursed for. Save phone and internet bills. Keep receipts for anything you buy for work. Start a mileage log with dates, destinations, purpose, and miles. Screenshot the texts and emails that show the job required the expense.

Your employer can owe you even if you never asked, as long as it knew or had reason to know about the expense. A written reimbursement request still helps, and a written answer can be useful evidence. California law generally protects you from retaliation for requesting reimbursement or complaining about unreimbursed work expenses, including a complaint to your supervisor.

Then watch the clock. These claims have deadlines, and waiting can put older expenses out of reach. Our guide to California employment deadlines lists other limits that can apply. A free case review can tell you what you may be owed before more of it expires.

The necessary costs of doing your job are generally your employer’s to pay. If you’ve been covering them yourself, the California employment lawyers at Wilshire Law Firm offer a free case review, available 24/7, with no fees unless you get paid, or you can start online. This article is general information, not legal advice.