Professional in Human Resources - California (PHRca) Study Guide

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A clinic receptionist works ten compensable hours Monday and six Tuesday at a $24 regular rate. Under the general rule, Monday produces eight hours at $24 and two at $36, even though the two-day total is sixteen hours.

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A nonexempt records employee works thirteen compensable hours at a $20 regular rate under the general rule. Calculate eight hours at $20, four at $30 and one at $40, producing $320 for that workday.

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A supervisor watches a scheduling coordinator finish patient callbacks after clocking out. The coordinator lacked overtime approval. HR restores the time, calculates any overtime owed and addresses the approval violation through a separate, lawful management process.

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Assume forty nonovertime hours, five time-and-one-half hours, no double time, and correct overtime already paid on hourly wages. A $180 production bonus yields $180 ÷ 45 = $4 per hour and $4 × 0.5 × 5 = $10 additional overtime. A $180 flat-sum bonus yields $180 ÷ 40 = $4.50 and $4.50 × 1.5 × 5 = $33.75 additional overtime. Each amount is paid in addition to the bonus.

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A clinic labels a salaried front-office lead an administrator, but the employee primarily performs routine scheduling and follows detailed instructions. HR reviews actual duties and compensation requirements before deciding whether overtime protection applies to the position.

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A registration employee working exactly six hours generally receives one ten-minute rest period. At six-and-one-half hours, the employee generally receives two because the remaining two-and-one-half hours exceed half of four. A three-hour shift generally requires none. Arrange coverage so qualifying breaks are paid and duty-free.

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A nonexempt clinic employee starts at 8:00 a.m. and works an ordinary eight-hour shift without an applicable exception. The schedule must provide the first meal by 1:00 p.m.; a planned 1:30 p.m. meal is too late.

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A manager requires a billing employee to handle calls throughout the scheduled meal and provides no replacement meal. HR pays the worked time and evaluates the additional one-hour meal premium using the employee's applicable regular rate.

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A clinic proposes contractor status for a technician. HR first checks which classification test applies, then examines actual control, the relationship between the services and clinic operations, and whether the technician maintains an independently established business.

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A clinic hires an outside plumber to repair a leaking pipe and separately considers a contractor providing its routine patient services. HR compares each service with the clinic's ordinary business, after confirming which classification test governs.

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A clinic plans to discharge an employee Thursday afternoon. HR obtains current time records and accrued vacation information before the meeting so the final payment can be available immediately instead of waiting for the following week's payroll.

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An office employee resigns effective immediately at noon Monday without prior notice. Under the general rule, HR arranges final wages and earned vacation by noon Thursday rather than using the next regularly scheduled payday as the deadline.

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From January 1 through June 30, 2025, covered dialysis-clinic workers had a $23 hourly minimum. The salary comparison was $23 × 1.5 × 2,080 = $71,760 versus $16.50 × 2 × 2,080 = $68,640; the higher threshold controlled. A private contractor's janitor spending 60% of the workweek at a covered facility qualifies for its healthcare rate for hours worked there.

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A clinic's recruiting vendor includes a required field asking applicants to list their last hourly rate and benefit value. HR removes the field and trains the vendor to discuss the posted range and candidate expectations instead.

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A recruiter tells a scheduling applicant the position's pay range and asks whether it aligns with the applicant's expectations. The recruiter evaluates qualifications within that range without asking for a current wage or prior pay statement.

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A clinic with thirty employees screens applicants for an ordinary administrative position with no identified statutory exception. HR removes conviction questions from the initial application and postpones any permitted conviction inquiry until after a conditional offer.

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After a conditional offer for a billing position, a clinic receives a conviction report. HR examines the conduct, its age and the position's financial responsibilities, documents the assessment and avoids relying on a universal exclusion list.

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An applicant receives the complete preliminary notice Monday and disputes a mistaken identity within the initial five-business-day period, explaining that court records are being obtained. HR allows the additional response period, reviews the records and reassesses. It does not make the rejection final while that required opportunity remains open.

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A medical group employs twelve people across three small offices. HR evaluates the group as the employer rather than treating each office's four-person staff as outside the general training requirement, then assigns the appropriate employee courses.

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A clinic promotes a coordinator into supervision. HR reassesses the training category and arranges qualifying supervisory instruction. Two qualifying one-hour segments can meet the two-hour total when completed within the applicable deadlines; an incomplete one-hour course alone cannot.

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A covered clinic hires nonsupervisory reception, billing and facilities employees. HR assigns qualifying one-hour training and records completion for each employee, rather than offering training only to staff who interact directly with patients or report concerns.

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A covered employer hires a temporary scheduler for a three-month assignment. The employee reaches one hundred work hours on day eighteen. HR ensures qualifying training by that earlier threshold rather than waiting until the thirtieth calendar day.

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A clinic employee begins paid orientation on June 3 but will not appear on a payroll run until later. HR uses June 3 as the reporting trigger and submits the new-hire report within twenty calendar days.

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A records employee resigns, remains separated for seventy consecutive days and then returns to paid work. HR treats the return as a reportable rehire instead of assuming the employee's earlier report remains sufficient for the new relationship.

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A clinic investigator compares messages, interview accounts and scheduling records concerning alleged harassment. The investigator decides which facts are more likely than not established, then separately explains how those facts relate to the employer's policy.

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Two employees disagree about an alleged threat. One appears calm and the other visibly anxious. The investigator examines contemporaneous texts and a witness's observations instead of ranking credibility primarily by how composed each employee appears.

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An unsigned report identifies a supervisor, repeated comments and specific meeting dates. HR preserves meeting messages, interviews relevant participants and assesses the allegations, even though it cannot initially ask the anonymous author follow-up questions directly.

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After a receptionist reports harassment, a supervisor proposes moving her to less desirable shifts. HR examines the reason, considers less burdensome protective measures and monitors treatment of the complainant and witnesses while the investigation proceeds.

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A healthcare establishment has eighty qualifying employees: sixty-five full-time and fifteen part-time, all meeting the service requirement. It plans to lay off fifty-two within thirty days. With no exception, the establishment and mass-layoff thresholds are met, so HR arranges sixty-day notice to all required recipients before implementation.

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A clinic with twenty employees receives a qualifying family-care request from an employee with fourteen months of service and 1,400 preceding-year work hours. HR applies CFRA's criteria rather than rejecting coverage because the clinic has fewer than fifty employees.

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An eligible employee requests leave to care for a long-standing companion identified as a designated person with a serious health condition. HR assesses the CFRA relationship and care requirements instead of rejecting the request solely because they are not married.

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An eligible billing employee needs recurring treatment appointments for a qualifying condition. HR evaluates the medical need and tracks the approved absences against available CFRA entitlement rather than requiring the employee to remain continuously absent between appointments.

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An employee with eighteen months of service and 1,400 preceding-year work hours uses six weeks of medically supported PDL. After recovery, the employee requests twelve weeks of CFRA bonding within the child's first year and has no prior CFRA usage. HR records six weeks against PDL and twelve against CFRA. A newly hired employee could qualify for PDL while lacking CFRA's service or hours eligibility.

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A covered employee normally works ten-hour days. Five workdays equal fifty hours, so a policy limiting annual paid-sick-leave use to forty hours falls short of the general forty-hours-or-five-days standard for that employee's schedule.

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For an established employee working eight-hour days, 1,200 work hours earn forty sick hours under 1:30 accrual. Twenty unused hours carry into the next year; an eighty-hour balance cap and forty-hour annual-use limit can coexist. Alternatively, fully frontloading forty hours at each year's start can remove the state carryover requirement. For ten-hour days, the corresponding minimum balance cap is one hundred hours and annual-use allowance is fifty hours.

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A recently hired employee asks whether an approved Paid Family Leave benefit guarantees reinstatement after bonding leave. HR explains the benefit's wage-replacement function and separately assesses CFRA eligibility and any other applicable protection or employer-provided leave.

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A clinic considers two policies: deleting unused vacation each December or stopping future accrual at a reasonable maximum until the balance falls. HR rejects deletion of vested time and evaluates the prospective accrual cap for compliance.

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A clinic employee reports a lifting injury to a supervisor on Tuesday. HR promptly provides or mails the claim form within the one-working-day requirement while the administrator separately gathers information about the incident and claim.

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Employees repeatedly report unsecured supply carts blocking clinic corridors. HR and safety personnel use the IIPP to identify responsibility, assess the hazard, arrange correction, communicate expectations and verify that the obstructed routes remain clear afterward.

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Observation-only hospital care does not by itself meet the hospitalization criterion. If the employer learns at 2:00 p.m. that the employee instead requires inpatient admission for treatment of a workplace injury, report immediately, ordinarily by 10:00 p.m. Do not wait for an insurer's compensability decision.

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An emergency department and an outpatient billing office face different violence risks. The employer assesses each setting, incorporates relevant employee input and develops appropriate controls and response procedures rather than assigning both locations an unchanged generic plan.

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After an incident, a hospital records the unit, event circumstances, incident characteristics and response in its violence log. It omits involved persons' identifying information while keeping any separately required confidential documentation in the appropriate controlled system.

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A hospital schedules annual refresher instruction for patient-contact transport staff and their supervisors as well as clinical employees. HR checks job activities and completion records instead of restricting the program to nurses and the security department.

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A female clinic coordinator earns $30 per hour and a male coordinator earns $32 for substantially similar work. A documented seniority system awards $1 per hour for each completed service year above the common starting rate. She has three completed years and he has five. If the system is reasonably applied and actually explains the entire $2 difference, seniority can justify the differential. If their difference were $3, this system would leave $1 unexplained; the employer would need another qualifying explanation for that remainder.

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One clinic calls a role patient access specialist and another calls the same work registration coordinator. HR compares duties and working conditions across the positions instead of closing the pay review because the payroll titles differ.

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Two employees perform substantially similar work, but one earns less because the clinic matched each person's previous salary plus ten percent. HR does not accept prior wages as the explanation and evaluates lawful factors and appropriate remediation.

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A twenty-person clinic asks a recruiting agency to post a California scheduling position. HR supplies the reasonably expected wage range and checks that the published advertisement includes it, rather than assuming the agency controls the compliance obligation.

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A former clinic employee submits a written request for performance records. HR logs the receipt date, identifies responsive personnel materials and arranges access within the general thirty-calendar-day period while separately handling any payroll-record request received with it.

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A personnel-record request reaches a file containing performance evaluations and reference letters. HR identifies the evaluations as potentially responsive and applies the statutory reference-record exclusion rather than releasing the entire folder without reviewing its contents.

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An employee requests wage statements and performance evaluations in the same letter. HR tracks the payroll materials under the as-soon-as-practicable, twenty-one-calendar-day rule and separately tracks the generally thirty-day personnel-record access requirement for the evaluations.

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A three-person clinic receives a complaint of workplace harassment. HR does not dismiss it based on having fewer than five employees; it evaluates the harassment protections that apply to smaller employers and responds appropriately to the allegations.

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A scheduler has a documented limitation affecting prolonged keyboard use. HR discusses the actual duties and explores effective equipment or work-method changes, evaluating function and hardship rather than assuming the diagnosis makes the employee unable to perform the role.

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An employee tells a supervisor that a medical condition makes the current workstation painful and asks for a different setup. HR begins clarification and accommodation discussions even though the employee has not completed the company's preferred request form.

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An employee exhausts available CFRA leave but requests a further defined recovery period. HR evaluates additional leave through the accommodation process, considers relevant return information and hardship, and avoids treating exhausted CFRA hours as the complete termination analysis.

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A lockable supply room near registration provides privacy but stores hazardous cleaning chemicals and lacks a chair or surface. HR selects or converts a nearby nonbathroom room, removes hazardous materials, supplies seating, a table and pump power, and protects access during use.

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A clinic provides a private expression room but places the only available refrigerator behind a locked door inaccessible during evening shifts. HR arranges suitable nearby storage access and confirms that running water is also available as required.

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A supervisor asks HR to circulate an employee's diagnosis to explain a schedule adjustment. HR provides only appropriate restriction and accommodation information to those with a permitted need, retaining medical documentation separately with controlled access.

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A clinic receives a 2026 PAGA notice. HR checks which alleged violations the employee experienced and whether the representation exception applies. For the LWDA small-employer cure route, fewer than one hundred employees during the preceding year is the coverage criterion, and a cure proposal is due within thirty-three days after receipt. A court early-evaluation request uses a separate post-suit process.

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Two twelve-person clinics meet the headcount measurement rule. Each has an enrolled employee whose ordinary termination causes loss of coverage. One clinic maintains a qualifying insured California group PPO; the other maintains a self-funded plan. Assuming the employee satisfies the remaining eligibility requirements, timely elects continuation and pays required premiums, the insured-plan employee can obtain Cal-COBRA continuation for up to 36 months while the group plan remains in force. The self-funded-plan employee has no Cal-COBRA entitlement because that funding arrangement is excluded.

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A clinic updates its posters and distributes the Workplace Know Your Rights notice to each current employee by February 1, 2026, using the applicable workplace languages. HR also arranges annual delivery to employees' authorized representatives, when applicable. An employee hired March 10 receives the notice upon hire rather than waiting until the next February 1. HR schedules annual distribution, checks satellite-office employees and uses a delivery method that reaches each required recipient.