# California — Workers' compensation waiting periods and retroactive thresholds by US state

For California, waiting period (days) is 3 days; retroactive trigger (days) is 14 days (or hospitalization as inpatient); how days are counted is No temporary disability indemnity is recoverable for the disability suffered during the first three days after the employee leaves work. The day of the injury is included in calculating the waiting period unless the employee was paid full wages for that day. If temporary disability continues for more than 14 days or the employee is hospitalized as an inpatient, indemnity is payable from the date of disability; statute or rule citation is Cal. Lab. Code § 4652, recorded from its source on 2026-08-17.

- **State:** California _(our reading, not quoted from the source)_
- **Waiting period (days):** 3 days _(verified: appears in the quote below)_
- **Retroactive trigger (days):** 14 days (or hospitalization as inpatient) _(verified: appears in the quote below)_
- **How days are counted:** No temporary disability indemnity is recoverable for the disability suffered during the first three days after the employee leaves work. The day of the injury is included in calculating the waiting period unless the employee was paid full wages for that day. If temporary disability continues for more than 14 days or the employee is hospitalized as an inpatient, indemnity is payable from the date of disability. _(verified: appears in the quote below)_
- **Statute or rule citation:** Cal. Lab. Code § 4652 _(our reading, not quoted from the source)_

## What the source says

> no temporary disability indemnity is recoverable for the disability suffered during the first three days after the employee leaves work as a result of the injury unless temporary disability continues for more than 14 days or the employee is hospitalized as an inpatient for treatment required by the injury, in either of which cases temporary disability indemnity shall be payable from the date of disability. For purposes of calculating the waiting period, the day of the injury shall be included unless the employee was paid full wages for that day.

## Source

- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=LAB&sectionNum=4652.

Last verified: 2026-08-17. Review by: 2027-08-17.
Part of [Workers' compensation waiting periods and retroactive thresholds by US state](https://referencesource.org/wc-waiting-periods-by-state/).