Remote Work Policy (US) by OLL
This remote and hybrid work policy establishes eligibility, location requirements, and expense reimbursement rules for a US-based workforce. It includes specific compliance modules for California, Illinois, New York, Connecticut, and Delaware, while maintaining the at-will nature of employment.
REMOTE AND HYBRID WORK POLICY
[company legal name]
Note: This policy covers fully remote, hybrid, and occasional remote working in a US business. Complete Exhibit A before you circulate it, and complete Exhibit B for every state your people work in. The two sections that cause the most trouble in practice are Section 6 on hours and overtime and Section 9 on expenses: read those before you change anything else.
1. PURPOSE AND SCOPE
1.1 Purpose. This policy sets out how [company legal name] (the "Company") manages remote and hybrid working: who is eligible, where and when you may work, what equipment and expenses the Company covers, and the security and safety expectations that apply away from a Company office.
1.2 Who it applies to. This policy applies to all Company employees in the United States who work remotely for all or part of their schedule. It does not apply to independent contractors, whose arrangements are governed by their own agreements.
1.3 Not a contract. This policy is not a contract of employment and does not create one. It does not change the at-will nature of employment, and the Company may change or withdraw it at any time, with or without notice, except where applicable law requires otherwise.
1.4 Other policies. This policy sits alongside the Company's other policies, including its information security, expense, equal opportunity, and anti-harassment policies. Where this policy conflicts with a written agreement signed by an authorized Company officer, that agreement prevails.
Note: Keep clause 1.3. A policy written in promissory language can be read as an implied contract in several states, which is how an employer ends up owing a remote work arrangement it intended to be discretionary. Montana is a further reason to be careful: it is the one state where employment is not at will after the probationary period, so if you employ anyone in Montana, confirm how clause 1.3 should read there.
2. DEFINITIONS
2.1 Remote. You work from an Approved Work Location full time and are not expected to attend a Company office on a regular schedule.
2.2 Hybrid. You split your time between a Company office and an Approved Work Location, attending the office on the days set out in Exhibit A.
2.3 Occasional remote. You are office-based and work remotely now and then with your manager's agreement.
2.4 Approved Work Location. The specific address the Company has approved for your remote work under Section 4. A coffee shop, an airport, or a friend's apartment is not an Approved Work Location unless your manager has approved it for a defined period.
Note: Approving an address rather than a city is deliberate. Workers' compensation cover, home office safety expectations, and in some states the tax and payroll position all attach to a specific place. It also gives you a clear answer when someone asks whether they can work from a rental in another state for a month.
3. ELIGIBILITY AND APPROVAL
3.1 Eligibility. Remote and hybrid working is available where the role can be performed effectively away from a Company office. Roles that require on-site presence, such as those involving physical inventory, laboratory or workshop equipment, or in-person client delivery, are not eligible.
3.2 Approval. Remote and hybrid arrangements must be approved in writing by your manager and by [approver name and title] before they start. Approval records your working pattern, your Approved Work Location, and your primary work state.
3.3 Office attendance for hybrid staff. Hybrid employees are expected in a Company office on [required office days per week] days each week, on the days set out in Exhibit A. Your manager may ask you to attend on other days for a specific business reason, giving as much notice as is reasonable.
3.4 Consistency. Eligibility decisions are made on the requirements of the role. The Company does not grant or refuse remote working on the basis of any characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.
Note: Employer surveys through 2025 and 2026 put the average requirement at just under three days a week, with around two thirds of companies that have a formal policy asking for three days or more. Employee preference sits at two to three days, so three is where the two curves meet. Whichever you pick, write it into Exhibit A rather than leaving it to each manager: inconsistent attendance expectations across teams are a common source of grievance and of discrimination complaints.
Note: Clause 3.1 is worth writing down even if it feels obvious. Refusing remote work for a role that plainly could be done remotely is harder to defend than refusing it for a role with a documented on-site requirement, and the documented version is what you will want if a request becomes an accommodation question under Section 14.
4. WORK LOCATION AND CHANGES OF LOCATION
4.1 Your primary work state. Your primary work state is the state recorded for you in Exhibit A. It determines payroll tax withholding, workers' compensation coverage, paid and unpaid leave entitlements, wage and hour rules, and which parts of Exhibit B apply to you.
4.2 Tell us before you move. You must notify [human resources contact name and title] in writing at least [advance notice for location change in days] days before you change your Approved Work Location or work from a different state, including a temporary stay. Do not begin working from the new location until the Company confirms it in writing.
4.3 Why the Company may say no. The Company may decline a location where it is not registered to do business or operate payroll, where it cannot arrange workers' compensation cover, where the move would create a tax or regulatory obligation the Company is not set up to meet, or where the time zone would prevent you from doing the role.
4.4 Working outside the United States. Working from outside the United States, including short trips, requires prior written approval from [approver name and title]. Approval is not routine: overseas work can create immigration, tax, social security, employment law, and data transfer obligations in the destination country.
Note: This is the section people skip and then regret. An employee who quietly relocates to another state can create payroll registration, unemployment insurance, workers' compensation, paid leave, and sometimes corporate tax obligations for the business, often backdated to the day they moved. A short written notice requirement is the cheapest control you will ever put in a policy.
Note: Thirty days is a workable default because it gives payroll time to register in a new state before the first pay run there. Suggested language: "at least thirty (30) days' written notice before any change to your work location." If you would rather not commit to a fixed number, ask for notice "as far in advance as reasonably possible and in any event before the change takes effect," which is easier to enforce against someone who moved at short notice.
5. WORKING HOURS AND AVAILABILITY
5.1 Your hours. Your working hours are set under whichever of the following options the Company has adopted, as recorded in Exhibit A.
Note: Use either Option A or Option B for clause 5.1. Delete the option you do not use.
Note: Use Option A (core hours) if your teams span time zones and you care more about overlap than about fixed start and finish times. It is the more common setting for distributed US companies and it travels better across the country. Use Option B (set schedule) if the work depends on covering a customer-facing window, if you employ non-exempt staff whose hours you need to control tightly, or if predictive scheduling rules apply to your industry or city.
Option A - Core hours: You may set your own start and finish times, provided you are available and reachable during core hours of [core hours window] in [core hours time zone], and provided you work your full contracted hours.
Option B - Set schedule: Your working hours are the schedule agreed with your manager and recorded in Exhibit A. Any change to that schedule needs your manager's prior agreement.
5.2 Availability. During working hours you are expected to be reachable through the Company's approved communication tools, to keep your calendar current, and to join scheduled meetings.
5.3 Meetings and cameras. Cameras are [camera expectation for video meetings] for video meetings. Where a camera is expected, you may use a background image, and the Company will not require you to show your home to colleagues.
5.4 Time away from your desk. Short breaks during the day are normal and expected. Tell your manager if you will be unreachable for an extended period during working hours.
Note: Clause 5.3 is a small thing that generates a lot of feeling. A blanket cameras-on rule can put employees in the position of showing a bedroom or a shared household to colleagues, and it disadvantages people whose home circumstances are not camera-ready. Allowing backgrounds and stating that you will not require a view of the home costs nothing and removes the objection.
6. TIMEKEEPING, OVERTIME, AND BREAKS
6.1 Recording your time. If you are non-exempt, you must record all time you actually work, including work done remotely, before or after scheduled hours, at weekends, and on a phone or laptop away from your desk. Record your own time only, and tell [payroll contact name and title] promptly if a time record is wrong so it can be corrected.
6.2 Overtime approval. If you are non-exempt, get your manager's approval before working beyond your scheduled hours. Working without approval may be a performance matter.
6.3 Overtime is always paid. The Company will pay you for all overtime you actually work, at the rate required by law, whether or not it was approved in advance. Nothing in clause 6.2 permits the Company to withhold pay for time you have worked.
6.4 Breaks. Meal and rest breaks are governed by the law of your primary work state and by Exhibit B. Where a meal break applies, take it, record it, and do not work through it. Where you are relieved of all duty during a meal break, that time is unpaid; where you are not relieved of all duty, it is working time and must be recorded and paid.
Note: Clause 6.3 is the most important sentence in this policy and it is the one most often missing. Federal law treats work the employer suffers or permits as working time (29 C.F.R. Section 785.11), and that rule expressly reaches work performed away from the premises or even at home: if the employer knows or has reason to believe the work is being done, it must count the time as hours worked (29 C.F.R. Section 785.12). It is management's job to stop unwanted work from happening, and simply announcing a rule against unauthorized work is not enough (29 C.F.R. Section 785.13). A policy saying overtime will not be paid unless approved does not protect you: it is evidence against you.
Note: The practical version of clause 6.3: if you do not want the overtime, manage it through the calendar and the workload, not through the payslip. Turning off after-hours notifications, keeping ticket queues out of evenings, and telling managers not to message non-exempt staff at night are the controls that work.
Note: California is stricter than the federal baseline and remote work does not soften it. An employer may not employ someone for more than five hours a day without providing a meal period of at least 30 minutes, or more than ten hours without a second one, with limited waivers at six and twelve hours (Cal. Lab. Code Section 512(a)). Meal and rest break premiums are a leading source of wage claims against California employers, and a remote employee's own timesheet is the evidence. Record the position for your state in Exhibit B.
7. EQUIPMENT AND COMPANY PROPERTY
7.1 What the Company provides. The Company will provide the equipment listed in Exhibit A. Company equipment remains Company property and must be used mainly for work.
7.2 Looking after it. Keep Company equipment secure and in good condition, use it in line with the Company's information security policy, and report loss, theft, or damage to [it contact name and title] promptly.
7.3 Personal devices. You may use a personal device for work only where the Company's information security policy permits it and the device meets the requirements in that policy. Company data on a personal device remains Company data and must be removed when the Company asks or when your employment ends.
7.4 Returning equipment. Return all Company equipment when your employment ends, when your arrangement changes, or when the Company asks. The Company will pay reasonable return shipping costs.
7.5 No deductions from pay. The Company will not deduct the cost of unreturned or damaged equipment from your wages or final pay except where applicable law expressly permits the deduction and you have given any consent that law requires.
Note: Clause 7.5 protects the Company as much as the employee. Most states restrict or prohibit deductions from wages for equipment, and an unlawful deduction can convert a missing laptop into a wage claim carrying penalties and, in some states, the employee's attorney's fees. Recover the property or its value separately from payroll.
8. HOME WORKSPACE, HEALTH, AND SAFETY
8.1 Your workspace. Keep a workspace that is safe and suitable for the work: adequate light, a stable surface and seat, safe electrical outlets and cabling, and freedom from obvious trip and fire hazards.
8.2 Reporting injuries. Report any work-related injury to [human resources contact name and title] as soon as you can, in the same way you would in a Company office. Injuries that happen while you are working may be covered by workers' compensation, and prompt reporting is usually a condition of any claim.
8.3 Company access. The Company will not enter your home. Where a safety or ergonomic assessment is needed, the Company will use a self-assessment form, photographs you provide, or a video walkthrough at a time you agree.
8.4 Ergonomics. Tell your manager or [human resources contact name and title] if your workspace is causing you discomfort. The Company will consider reasonable adjustments, including equipment, under Section 14.
Note: Federal law requires an employer to furnish a place of employment free from recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious physical harm (29 U.S.C. Section 654(a)(1)). In practice a home office is treated far more lightly than a worksite, and inspections of home offices are not the norm. What matters is that the employee knows how to report a problem and that you respond when they do.
Note: Workers' compensation is state law and it can cover an injury at home if the injury arose out of and in the course of employment. That question turns on facts: what the employee was doing, when, and whether it served the business. Confirm the position for each primary work state and record it in Exhibit B.
9. EXPENSES AND REIMBURSEMENT
9.1 How the Company covers your costs. The Company covers the costs of working remotely under whichever of the following options it has adopted, as recorded in Exhibit A.
Note: Use either Option A or Option B for clause 9.1. Delete the option you do not use.
Note: Use Option A (reimburse actual expenses) if you employ people in California, Illinois, or another state that requires reimbursement of necessary business expenses, or if you want the position that most clearly meets those laws. Use Option B (fixed allowance) if you want predictable cost and simple administration, and be aware that an allowance only works if it genuinely covers what the employee has to spend. Whichever you choose, remote employees in reimbursement states must still end up whole.
Option A - Reimburse actual expenses: The Company will reimburse necessary business expenses you incur working remotely, including the business portion of home internet and mobile costs and any other item listed in Exhibit A. Submit expenses with supporting documentation within [expense submission window in days] days of incurring them, to [expense approver name and title].
Option B - Fixed monthly allowance: The Company will pay you a remote working allowance of [monthly remote work allowance amount] per month toward home internet, mobile, and other running costs, together with a one-time home office setup amount of [one-time home office setup amount]. Where applicable law requires reimbursement of a necessary expense that the allowance does not cover, the Company will reimburse the shortfall on request.
9.2 Travel to a Company office. Travel between your Approved Work Location and your assigned Company office is commuting and is not reimbursable, unless applicable law requires otherwise or the Company asks you to travel to a location that is not your assigned office.
9.3 What is not covered. The Company does not reimburse rent, mortgage, utilities other than the business portion of connectivity, home insurance, or general furniture, unless Exhibit A says otherwise or applicable law requires it.
Note: California is the reason this section exists. An employer must indemnify an employee for all necessary expenditures or losses incurred in carrying out their duties (Cal. Lab. Code Section 2802(a)), and the definition of necessary expenditures expressly includes the employee's attorney's fees in enforcing the right (Section 2802(c)). For a remote employee that reaches the business share of internet and phone costs. A reasonable percentage or a realistic flat allowance is accepted practice; paying nothing is not.
Note: Illinois runs a similar rule with a procedural twist worth knowing. An employer must reimburse necessary expenditures within the scope of employment (820 ILCS 115/9.5(a)), and the employee must submit the expense with documentation within 30 calendar days unless the employer's written policy allows longer. A written expense policy can set guidelines and caps, and the employer is not liable above them, but only if the policy does not provide for no reimbursement or de minimis reimbursement (820 ILCS 115/9.5(b)). So a written policy with sensible caps is better protection in Illinois than no policy at all.
Note: Employer benefit surveys through 2025 and 2026 put one-time home office setup amounts between $500 and $2,000, with $1,000 the most common figure and startups clustering at $1,000 to $1,500. Recurring allowances run from $50 to a few hundred dollars a month, with $75 to $150 typical. These budgets have thinned since their 2021 peak and a number of employers have withdrawn them, so treat the range as a starting point rather than an expectation.
Note: Tax treatment follows how you structure the payment, not what you call it. Reimbursements under an accountable plan sit outside the employee's income, but an arrangement stops qualifying if it does not require the employee to substantiate the expense, or if it lets the employee keep amounts above what they substantiated (26 U.S.C. Section 62(c)). A flat allowance paid with no receipts and no clawback of the excess generally fails both tests and becomes taxable wages. Confirm the mechanics with your payroll provider before you choose Option B.
10. INFORMATION SECURITY AND CONFIDENTIALITY
10.1 Security basics. Working remotely, you must: use the Company's approved systems and accounts for Company data; keep devices locked when unattended; use a secured private network rather than open public wifi, or the Company's approved VPN where public wifi is unavoidable; keep operating systems and security software up to date; and use the Company's approved password manager and multi-factor authentication.
10.2 Keeping work private. Take reasonable steps to stop others in your household or in a public space from seeing or hearing Company or customer information, including on screens, in calls, and on printed documents. Do not let anyone else use a device that holds Company data.
10.3 Paper and disposal. Avoid printing Company or customer information at home. Where you must, store it securely and shred it when it is no longer needed.
10.4 Incidents. Report any suspected security incident, lost device, or accidental disclosure to [it contact name and title] immediately, however minor it seems and whoever was at fault.
10.5 Protected discussions. Nothing in this policy prevents you from discussing your pay, hours, or working conditions with others, from reporting a suspected violation of law to a government agency, or from exercising any other legally protected right.
Note: Clause 10.5 is not optional padding. A confidentiality or communications rule drafted broadly enough to stop employees discussing pay or working conditions, or reporting to a regulator, can itself be unlawful, and remote work policies frequently overreach here because they are written from an IT perspective rather than an employment one.
Note: Clause 10.4 works only if reporting is genuinely safe. The most damaging security incidents in small companies are the ones an employee sat on for two days because they were embarrassed. Say plainly, here and in practice, that prompt reporting is what matters.
11. PRIVACY AND MONITORING
11.1 What the Company monitors. The Company may monitor and access its systems, devices, accounts, and networks, including email, messaging, internet use, and files stored on Company systems. The monitoring the Company carries out is described in Exhibit A.
11.2 No expectation of privacy in Company systems. You should not expect privacy in anything you create, send, receive, or store on Company systems or devices, including personal messages sent through them.
11.3 What the Company does not do. The Company does not monitor your personal devices or personal accounts, does not use always-on webcam or microphone monitoring, and does not track your location outside working hours.
11.4 Notices. Where the law of your primary work state requires notice or consent before electronic monitoring, the Company will give that notice and obtain any acknowledgement required. Exhibit B records the requirements that apply.
Note: Three states require notice before electronic monitoring and each does it differently, so do not assume one approach covers all of them. New York requires written notice on hiring, acknowledged by the employee in writing or electronically, plus a conspicuous posted notice, with attorney general penalties of up to $500, $1,000, and $3,000 for first, second, and later offenses (N.Y. Civ. Rights Law Section 52-c). Connecticut accepts either prior written notice to affected employees or a conspicuous posted notice, allows monitoring without notice where the employer has reasonable grounds to believe employees are breaking the law or creating a hostile workplace, and sets the same three penalty tiers through the Labor Commissioner (Conn. Gen. Stat. Section 31-48d). Delaware goes further and prohibits monitoring outright unless the employer either gives an electronic notice each day the employee uses employer-provided email or internet, or gives a one-time written notice the employee acknowledges, with a civil penalty of $100 per violation (19 Del. C. Section 705). Record the position for each state you employ in, in Exhibit B.
Note: Clause 11.3 is doing real work. Productivity surveillance tools that take periodic screenshots or track keystrokes are legal in most places but they damage trust badly, and they hand an employee evidence that the Company knew about after-hours work it did not pay for. If you use one, say so plainly in Exhibit A and delete the parts of clause 11.3 that are no longer true, because a policy describing monitoring you are not actually doing is worse than no policy.
12. PERFORMANCE, CONDUCT, AND COMMUNICATION
12.1 Same standards. The standards that apply in a Company office apply when you work remotely: the same performance expectations, the same code of conduct, and the same anti-harassment rules. Harassment in a message, a video call, or a chat channel is treated the same as harassment in person.
12.2 Staying connected. Keep your manager informed of your progress and raise blockers early. Managers are responsible for keeping remote and hybrid team members included in decisions, information, and development opportunities on the same basis as office-based colleagues.
12.3 Working elsewhere is not a substitute for leave. Remote working is not a substitute for dependant care or for sick leave. If you need to care for someone or you are unwell, use the Company's leave policies rather than trying to do both at once.
Note: Clause 12.2 puts a duty on managers rather than on remote staff, which is the right way round. Proximity bias is the most common practical failure of hybrid working: remote employees get fewer stretch projects and slower progression than office-based colleagues doing the same work, which is both a retention problem and, where it correlates with caring responsibilities or disability, a legal one.
13. CHANGING OR ENDING AN ARRANGEMENT
13.1 Changing or withdrawing an arrangement. The Company may change or end a remote or hybrid arrangement under whichever of the following options it has adopted, as recorded in Exhibit A.
Note: Use either Option A or Option B for clause 13.1. Delete the option you do not use.
Note: Use Option A (discretionary) if you want to keep the flexibility to bring people back to an office as the business changes. It is the market default and it pairs with clause 1.3. Use Option B (reasons and notice) if remote working is part of how you attract people and you want to give a stronger commitment; it is more attractive to candidates, and the trade-off is that withdrawing an arrangement takes longer and needs a documented reason.
Option A - Discretionary, on notice: The Company may change or end a remote or hybrid arrangement at any time, for any business reason, on [notice to end arrangement in days] days' written notice. The Company will discuss the change with you before it takes effect.
Option B - Reasons and notice: The Company may change or end a remote or hybrid arrangement on [notice to end arrangement in days] days' written notice where there is a business reason for doing so, including a change to the requirements of the role, a sustained performance concern, a repeated breach of this policy, or a change in the Company's operating model. The Company will give you the reason in writing and will discuss it with you first.
13.2 Requesting a change. You may ask to change your arrangement at any time by writing to your manager and to [human resources contact name and title]. The Company will respond within [response time to change requests in days] days.
13.3 Immediate change. The Company may require you to work from a Company office immediately where there is a serious security, safety, or performance concern, or where applicable law requires it.
Note: Thirty days is a sensible default for ending a remote arrangement because it is enough time for someone to rearrange childcare or a commute. Suggested language: "on thirty (30) days' prior written notice." Anything shorter than two weeks reads as punitive and is likely to cost you the employee.
Note: Handle a change of arrangement carefully where the employee is remote for a reason connected to a disability, a pregnancy, or a caring responsibility. Withdrawing remote working in those cases can convert a routine operational decision into a discrimination or failure-to-accommodate claim. Route it through Section 14 before you act.
14. ACCOMMODATIONS
14.1 Requesting an accommodation. If you need an adjustment to your working arrangement, your equipment, or your schedule because of a disability, a medical condition, pregnancy, childbirth or a related condition, or a religious belief or practice, contact [accommodation contact name and title]. You do not need to use any particular form of words to make a request.
14.2 How the Company responds. The Company will discuss the request with you, consider what adjustments are workable, and provide a reasonable accommodation unless doing so would cause the Company undue hardship. Medical information you provide is kept confidential and separate from your personnel file.
14.3 Remote work as an accommodation. Remote working may itself be a reasonable accommodation. A request to work remotely for a reason of this kind is handled under this Section, not under Section 3.
14.4 No retaliation. The Company will not retaliate against you for requesting an accommodation, for raising a concern under this policy, or for taking part in an investigation.
Note: Federal law makes it unlawful to fail to make reasonable accommodations to the known limitations of a qualified individual with a disability unless the employer can show undue hardship (42 U.S.C. Section 12112(b)(5)(A)). Remote working is squarely on the list of possible accommodations now that most roles have been shown to work remotely, which makes a blanket refusal harder to justify than it once was. State and city laws often go further and apply at lower headcounts, so check Exhibit B.
Note: Clause 14.3 matters procedurally. If an accommodation request is processed as an ordinary remote work application and refused on business preference grounds, the employer has usually skipped the interactive discussion the law expects, and that skipped step is what claims are built on.
15. POLICY ADMINISTRATION
15.1 Owner. This policy is owned by [policy owner name and title], who is responsible for keeping it current.
15.2 Effective date and review. This policy takes effect on [policy effective date] and will be reviewed at least annually, and sooner if the law or the Company's operating model changes.
15.3 Questions. Questions about this policy should go to [human resources contact name and title].
15.4 Local law prevails. Where the law of your primary work state or city gives you a greater right than this policy, that law applies. Exhibit B records the state and local variations the Company has identified.
Note: Set a real review date and keep it. State reimbursement rules, monitoring notice laws, and paid leave entitlements change every legislative session, and a remote workforce spread across several states is exposed to all of them at once.
EXHIBIT A - KEY TERMS AND CONTACTS
Note: Complete this Exhibit before you circulate the policy. If anything here conflicts with the Sections above, this Exhibit prevails.
The Company
Company legal name: [company legal name]
Policy owner: [policy owner name and title]
Policy effective date: [policy effective date]
Contacts
Human resources contact: [human resources contact name and title]
Approver for remote and hybrid arrangements: [approver name and title]
Payroll contact: [payroll contact name and title]
IT and security contact: [it contact name and title]
Expense approver: [expense approver name and title]
Accommodation contact: [accommodation contact name and title]
Working Pattern
Required office days per week for hybrid staff: [required office days per week]
Which days: [nominated office days]
Hours model (Section 5.1 Option A or Option B): [selected hours option]
Core hours window (Option A): [core hours window]
Core hours time zone (Option A): [core hours time zone]
Cameras on video meetings: [camera expectation for video meetings]
Location
Employee primary work state: [employee primary work state]
Advance notice required before a location change: [advance notice for location change in days] days
Equipment
Equipment the Company provides: [equipment the company provides]
Expenses
Expense model (Section 9.1 Option A or Option B): [selected expense option]
Expense submission window (Option A): [expense submission window in days] days
Reimbursable items (Option A): [reimbursable items list]
Monthly remote work allowance (Option B): [monthly remote work allowance amount]
One-time home office setup amount (Option B): [one-time home office setup amount]
Monitoring
Monitoring the Company carries out: [description of monitoring the company carries out]
Changing an Arrangement
Change model (Section 13.1 Option A or Option B): [selected change of arrangement option]
Notice to change or end an arrangement: [notice to end arrangement in days] days
Company response time to a change request: [response time to change requests in days] days
EXHIBIT B - STATE AND LOCAL LAW SUPPLEMENT
Note: Complete a block for every state your remote and hybrid employees work in. A remote workforce is governed by the law of each employee's primary work state, not by the state the Company is incorporated in, so this Exhibit is where a distributed employer does most of its real compliance work. The states below are the ones that most often catch out US employers with remote staff; add your own.
B.1 California
Expense reimbursement: an employer must indemnify an employee for all necessary expenditures or losses incurred in carrying out their duties, and necessary expenditures include the employee's attorney's fees in enforcing the right (Cal. Lab. Code Sections 2802(a) and 2802(c)). For remote employees this reaches the business share of home internet and mobile costs.
Meal and rest breaks: a meal period of at least 30 minutes for a work period over five hours, and a second for a work period over ten hours, waivable only at six and twelve hours respectively (Cal. Lab. Code Section 512(a)). Daily overtime rules also apply and differ from the federal weekly test.
Company additions for California: [california additions and local ordinances]
B.2 Illinois
Expense reimbursement: an employer must reimburse necessary expenditures within the scope of employment, and an employee must submit the expense with supporting documentation within 30 calendar days unless the employer's written policy allows longer (820 ILCS 115/9.5(a)). A written expense policy may set guidelines and caps, and the employer is not liable above them, provided the policy does not provide for no reimbursement or de minimis reimbursement (820 ILCS 115/9.5(b)).
Company additions for Illinois: [illinois additions and local ordinances]
B.3 New York
Electronic monitoring: an employer that monitors telephone, email, or internet use must give written notice on hiring, acknowledged by the employee in writing or electronically, and must post a notice in a conspicuous place (N.Y. Civ. Rights Law Section 52-c). Penalties imposed by the attorney general run up to $500 for a first offense, $1,000 for a second, and $3,000 for later offenses.
Company additions for New York: [new york additions and local ordinances]
B.4 Connecticut
Electronic monitoring: an employer must give prior written notice to all employees who may be affected, informing them of the types of monitoring that may occur, or post that notice in a conspicuous place readily available for viewing. Notice is not required where the employer has reasonable grounds to believe employees are engaged in conduct that violates the law, violates the legal rights of the employer or other employees, or creates a hostile workplace, and where monitoring may produce evidence of that conduct. The Labor Commissioner may impose penalties of up to $500 for a first offense, $1,000 for a second, and $3,000 for later offenses (Conn. Gen. Stat. Section 31-48d).
Company additions for Connecticut: [connecticut additions and local ordinances]
B.5 Delaware
Electronic monitoring: an employer may not monitor or intercept an employee's telephone conversations, email, or internet use unless it either gives an electronic notice of its monitoring policies at least once on each day the employee accesses employer-provided email or internet services, or has given a one-time notice in writing or electronic form that the employee acknowledged in writing or electronically. The requirement does not apply to court-ordered law enforcement activity or to routine maintenance processes not targeted at a particular individual. The civil penalty is $100 for each violation (19 Del. C. Section 705).
Company additions for Delaware: [delaware additions and local ordinances]
B.6 Other states
Record here the reimbursement, monitoring notice, paid leave, predictive scheduling, and wage and hour requirements that apply in every other state and city where a remote or hybrid employee works: [other state and local requirements]
Note: Do not treat the blocks above as a complete map. Several other states require reimbursement of necessary business expenses on their own terms, and state paid leave, predictive scheduling, and pay transparency rules vary widely. Confirm the current requirements for each state you employ in before you rely on this Exhibit.
EXHIBIT C - EMPLOYEE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Note: Ask each remote and hybrid employee to sign this page and keep it on file. In New York it does double duty: the electronic monitoring notice must be acknowledged by the employee in writing or electronically, and this acknowledgement combined with Section 11 and Exhibit A can satisfy that requirement. An electronic signature is fine.
I confirm that I have read and understood the Remote and Hybrid Work Policy, including the sections on working hours and overtime, expenses, information security, and monitoring of Company systems. I understand that this policy is not a contract of employment, that it does not change the at-will nature of my employment, and that the Company may change or withdraw it.
I confirm that my Approved Work Location and my primary work state are as recorded by the Company, and that I will notify the Company before either changes.
Employee name: [employee full name]
Approved Work Location: [employee approved work location address]
Primary work state: [employee primary work state]
Working pattern (remote, hybrid, or occasional remote): [employee working pattern]
Signature: [employee signature]
Date: [employee signature date]
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