19 Oct 2025 - AJ
So, if you’re of a certain era, you’ve certainly heard Ronald Regan’s derisive statement about the government being there to help.
But, in general, the government is there to help. While there are public servants that are only there for the paycheck or the power it gives them, most civil servants that I know are there to genuinely make peoples’ lives better. And that includes civil servants who take call center jobs so that they can help people figure out what to do.
If you are in California and need to find labor law notices, your best bet is a department called the Department of Industrial Relations, in particular their Division of Labor Standards Enforcement. I’d vaguely heard of the agency but not the division, but it sounds like they’re the people that make sure your employer is giving you breaks and water and things like that.
Also, every state office I’ve worked in buys labor law posters each year from private entities. I don’t consider them a scam, just the ones that misrepresent themselves as government agencies rather than honestly saying “we can sell you labor law posters to be in compliance!”