• Are you required to use your own cell phone for work?

• “Huh? What’s that?” – Is this your reaction to a question about your workplace cell phone reimbursement policy?

If you answered, “Yes,” to both questions, then you may be entitled to a reimbursement of a reasonable percentage of your monthly cell phone bills.

Nowadays, many employers require employees to use their own cell phones for work-related emails, texts, and to even record their work hours on phone apps (i.e. clicktime, zoho) – without providing any reimbursement.  This practice would violate Labor Code 2802, which requires reimbursement for reasonable business expenses.

Further addressing this issue, the Court of Appeal in Cochran v. Schwan’s Home Serv., Inc., 228 Cal.App.4th 1137   held that employers must reimburse their employees a “reasonable percentage” of the cell phone bills. Oh, and it doesn’t matter whether employees have an unlimited minutes or family plan.

However, the Cochran Court wisely refused to address how to calculate a “reasonable percentage” since there is no “one size fits all” answer.

So now what?  Well, the method for calculating a reasonable percentage is still open to interpretation – at least until future cases can provide further clarification.  But to safely comply with the law, maybe your employer can provide company phones and expressly ban your personal cell phone for work use?  Or maybe your employer can reimburse you with a monthly fixed sum – say $75 as an example?  Our next blog will discuss several ways for an employer to stay legally compliant on this issue.