2010 California Code
Civil Code
Chapter 1. General Provisions

1812.500.  This title shall be known and cited as the Employment
Agency, Employment Counseling, and Job Listing Services Act.



1812.501.  (a) (1) "Employment agency" or "agency" means:
   (A) Any person who, for a fee or other valuable consideration to
be paid, directly or indirectly by a jobseeker, performs, offers to
perform, or represents it can or will perform any of the following
services:
   (i) Procures, offers, promises, or attempts to procure employment
or engagements for others or employees for employers.
   (ii) Registers persons seeking to procure or retain employment or
engagement.
   (iii) Gives information as to where and from whom this help,
employment, or engagement may be procured.
   (iv) Provides employment or engagements.
   (B) Any person who offers, as one of its main objects or purposes,
to procure employment for any person who will pay for its services,
or that collects dues, tuition, or membership or registration fees of
any sort, if the main object of the person paying those fees is to
secure employment.
   (C) Any person who, for a fee or other valuable consideration,
procures, offers, promises, provides, or attempts to procure
babysitting or domestic employment for others or domestics or
babysitters for others.
   (2) "Employment agency" or "agency" shall not include any
employment counseling service or any job listing service.
   (b) (1) "Employment counseling service" means any person who
offers, advertises, or represents it can or will provide any of the
following services for a fee: career counseling, vocational guidance,
aptitude testing, executive consulting, personnel consulting, career
management, evaluation, or planning, or the development of résumés
and other promotional materials relating to the preparation for
employment. "Employment counseling service" shall not include persons
who provide services strictly on an hourly basis with no financial
obligation required of the consumer beyond the hourly fee for
services rendered. An "employment counseling service" does not
include the functions of an "employment agency" as defined in
subdivision (a).
   (2) "Employment counseling service" does not include:
   (A) Businesses that are retained by, act solely on behalf of, and
are compensated solely by prior or current employers that do not
require any "customer" to sign a contract and do not in any way hold
any "customer" liable for fees.
   (B) (i) Any provider of vocational rehabilitation in which the
counseling services are paid for by insurance benefits, if the
counseling is provided as a result of marital dissolution or
separation proceedings to prepare one of the spouses for reentry into
the job market and if the fees are paid by some party other than the
person receiving the counseling services.
   (ii) The exemption provided in this subparagraph does not apply to
any vocational rehabilitation counselor who receives any payments
directly from the individual customer receiving the counseling.
   (C) Any person who engages solely in the preparation of résumés
and cover letters, provided that the résumé writing service does not
advertise or hold itself out as offering other job seeking or
placement services and does not charge more than three hundred
dollars ($300) for any résumé, cover letter, or combination of both
to any single customer in any individual transaction.
   (D) Any public educational institution.
   (E) Any private educational institution established solely for
educational purposes that, as a part of its curriculum, offers
employment counseling to its student body and conforms to the
requirements of Article 3.5 (commencing with Section 94760) of
Chapter 7 of Part 59 of the Education Code.
   (F) A psychologist or psychological corporation licensed pursuant
to Chapter 6.6 (commencing with Section 2900) of Division 2 of the
Business and Professions Code, providing psychological assessment,
career or occupational counseling, or consultation and related
professional services within his, her, or its scope of practice.
   (G) An educational psychologist licensed pursuant to Article 5
(commencing with Section 4986) of Chapter 13 of Division 2 of the
Business and Professions Code, providing counseling services within
his or her scope of practice.
   (c) "Job listing service" means any person who provides, offers,
or represents it can or will provide any of the following services,
for a fee or other valuable consideration to be paid, directly or
indirectly, by the jobseeker in advance of, or contemporaneously
with, performance of these services: matches jobseekers with
employment opportunities, providing or offering to provide jobseekers
lists of employers or lists of job openings or like publications, or
preparing résumés or lists of jobseekers for distribution to
potential employers.
   (d) A "nurses' registry" as defined in subdivision (b) of Section
1812.524 is an employment agency. However, unless otherwise provided
for in this title, a nurses' registry shall not be required to comply
with Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 1812.503) regulating
employment agencies but, instead, shall be required to comply with
Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 1812.524).
   (e) "Jobseeker" means a person seeking employment.
   (f) "Employer" means any individual, company, partnership,
association, corporation, agent, employee, or representative for whom
or for which an employment agency or job listing service attempts to
obtain an employee or to place a jobseeker.
   (g) "Job order" means any written or oral instruction, direction,
or permission granted by an employer or its agent to an employment
agency or job listing service to refer jobseekers for a specified
job.
   (h) "Domestic agency" means any agency that provides, or attempts
to provide, employment by placement of domestic help in private
homes.
   (i) "Deposit" means any money or valuable consideration received
by an employment agency or job listing service from a jobseeker for
referring the jobseeker to a position of employment prior to the
jobseeker's acceptance of a position.
   (j) "Fee" means:
   (1) Any money or other valuable consideration paid, or promised to
be paid, for services rendered or to be rendered by any person
conducting an employment agency, employment counseling service, or
job listing service under this title.
   (2) Any money received by any person in excess of that which has
been paid out by him or her for transportation, transfer of baggage,
or board and lodging for any applicant for employment.
   (k) "Registration fee" means any charge made, or attempted to be
made, by an employment agency for registering or listing an applicant
for employment, for letter writing, or any charge of a like nature
made, or attempted to be made without having a bona fide order for
the placement of the applicant in a position.
   (l) "Person" means any individual, corporation, partnership,
limited liability company, trust, association, or other organization.
   (m) This section shall become operative on January 1, 1997.



1812.502.  (a) This title does not apply to any person who provides
any of the services described in subdivision (a) of Section 1812.501
and who charges fees exclusively to employers for those services. The
exemption from regulation provided by this subdivision does not
apply to any person who provides babysitting or domestic employment
for others. This subdivision does not apply to an employment
counseling service as defined in subdivision (b) of Section 1812.501.
   (b) This title shall not apply to any nonprofit corporation,
organized for the purpose of economic adjustment, civic betterment,
and the giving of vocational guidance and placement to its members,
or others, including employment counseling services, when all of the
following conditions exist:
   (1) None of the directors, officers, or employees thereof receive
any profit other than a nominal salary for services performed for the
organization or corporation.
   (2) No fee is charged for those services, though a voluntary
contribution may be requested.
   (3) Membership dues or fees charged are used solely for
maintenance of the organization or corporation.
   (c) Nothing in this title shall apply to a nonprofit corporation
which has been formed in good faith for the promotion and advancement
of the general professional interests of its members and which
maintains a placement service principally engaged in securing
employment for such members with the state or any county, city,
district or other public agency under contracts providing employment
for one year or longer, or any nonprofit corporation exempted by
subdivision (b).
   (d) This title shall not apply to a labor organization as defined
in Section 1117 of the Labor Code, a newspaper of general
circulation, bona fide newsletter, magazine, trade or professional
journal, or other publication of general circulation, the main
purpose of which is dissemination of news, reports, trade or
professional information, or information not intended to assist in
locating, securing, or procuring employment or assignments for
others.
   (e) As used in this title, "employment agency" or "agency" does
not include a nursing school, business school, or vocational school,
except that if such a school charges a fee for placement, the school
shall be an employment agency within the meaning of this title.
   (f) (1) A job listing service which meets the requirements
specified in paragraph (2) or (3) shall not be subject to any of the
following: Sections 1812.515, 1812.516, 1812.517, and 1812.518;
subdivisions (a) and (b), and paragraph (3) of subdivision (c), and
subdivision (d) of Section 1812.519; paragraph (2) of subdivision
(b), and subdivisions (c), (d), (e), and (f) of Section 1812.520; and
Section 1812.521.
   (2) A job listing service shall be exempt pursuant to paragraph
(1) if it complies with all of the following:
   (A) Does not provide, offer, or imply the offer of, services
related to employment.
   (B) Does not offer or sell lists of employers or job openings to
jobseekers on an in-person basis.
   (C) Maintains records of all its advertisements, identified by
date and publication, and the sources of information used for the
preparation of lists of employers and job openings, from which can be
determined the accuracy of any statistics regarding success rate or
similar statistics used in its advertising, promotional materials, or
oral or written statements to jobseekers.
   (D) Identifies, on each list of employers and job openings, its
general source of information for jobs included on that list when the
source of information is a publication or other public record.
   (E) Provides, at or before the time of delivery of the list, a
prominent written statement to the jobseeker granting the jobseeker a
right to return the list for an immediate refund of the purchase
price during a stated period of time which expires not less than 10
days from the date of delivery of the list. The list shall be deemed
returned upon delivery to the address from which it was obtained or
upon deposit in the mail properly addressed to that address, with
postage prepaid.
   (3) A job listing service shall be exempt pursuant to paragraph
(1) if it complies with all of the following:
   (A) A majority interest in the job listing service is owned by one
or more colleges or universities, or alumni associations affiliated
therewith, and each college or university is accredited by both (i)
an accrediting agency recognized as such by the United States
Department of Education and (ii) a member organization of the Council
of Postsecondary Accreditation.
   (B) The job listing service provides services related to
employment exclusively for jobseekers who are the alumni of colleges
or universities specified in subparagraph (A).
   (C) The job listing service does not require, as a condition to
receiving employment services, that the applicant have completed
courses or examinations beyond the requirements for graduation from
the college or university specified in subparagraph (A).
   (D) More than 50 percent of the annual revenues received by the
job listing service are derived from paid subscriptions of
prospective employers.