Easy, breezy California payroll services.
From Palo Alto to Pasadena, Gusto’s California payroll services make it easy to manage HR, payroll, benefits, and more. Pay your team in a snap while staying up to date with complex compliance—all in one intuitive, fully integrated people platform.
How Gusto worksCreate account
Compliance done right
From state tax registration to city-specific minimum wage, we’ll help you stay a step ahead of compliance headaches.
Payroll taxes? Taken care of
Every time you run payroll, we automatically calculate, file, and pay all federal, state, and local taxes.
All-in-one, integrated platform
Hiring, time tracking, benefits, and performance management are built right in, so you can take care of your team all in one place.
9 out of 10
customers would recommend Gusto.
152 hours
average time customers saved per year on tax and compliance work after switching to Gusto.
4.5/5 stars
average rating from Gusto customers.
*Source: Survey of 538 Gusto Customers, September 2024
Gusto is just easy. I have full confidence in the calculations and compliance side of things. Combining payroll and benefits is super streamlined and helps so much!
I can't imagine running our business without Gusto. We use it for payroll, compliance, 401k, employee benefits, HR resource center...the list goes on. Gusto makes managing all things HR and operations easy and gives us the confidence to focus on other parts of the business.
California payroll
Payroll that feels like a day at the beach.
Kick back and relax knowing payroll is accurate and on time, every time. With Gusto, all your federal, state, local taxes are taken care of, including UI, SDI, ETT, and PIT. Deductions are automatic, and team members can easily access paystubs, tax forms, and more with employee self-service. Got salaried employees? Use Payroll on Autopilot to take payroll off your mind and off your plate.
Payroll compliance
Peace of mind? Piece of cake.
California payroll compliance is no picnic. Luckily, Gusto can handle your state tax registration from start to finish*, all while helping you stay on top of ever-changing regulations.* Minimum wage calculations, meal breaks, overtime, and paid family and sick leave are built right in—along with compliant retirement plans and workers’ comp for your team. Got a question? Our team of certified HR experts are just a chat, email, or phone call away.
*State tax registration and compliance alerts are paid add-on features (see details)
Fully integrated
Taking care of your team has never been easier.
Gusto is so much more than payroll. With our fully integrated platform, you can easily create custom benefits packages, handle time tracking and scheduling that seamlessly syncs to payroll, and hire, onboard, and manage your team—all in one easy-to-use platform. Whether you’re a team of California natives or coast-to-coast contractors, we’ve got the tools to get the job done without breaking a sweat.
FAQs
While many payroll providers offer payroll services in California, not all of them are built to handle the increased complexity in such a highly regulated state. Gusto’s California payroll service is designed specifically to help your business navigate minimum wage, state and local taxes, and legislation surrounding terminations, PTO, and more. Check out this guide to learn more about payroll and labor law in California.
California is one of the most highly regulated states when it comes to payroll and labor law. Businesses are required to stay compliant with numerous state-specific pieces of legislation such as Guaranteed Hours, required retirement plans, location-based minimum wage, paid sick leave, paystub documentation, meal breaks, termination pay, and overtime laws that often differ from one city to another.
Employers must withhold federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, and California state income tax. They must also pay state unemployment insurance (UI), employment training tax (ETT), and state disability insurance (SDI). Gusto will automatically calculate, file, and pay all state and local income tax in California.
California requires all employers to participate in the state-sponsored retirement program CalSavers if they don’t already offer another compliant retirement plan to employees. Check out this guide to California’s retirement requirement.
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