Ok so heres a few things I have some questions about. My company just a few months ago started paying the extra hour of pay if you didn't get a lunch break. I work in retail. When did that come into effect, and if I or other employees worked without meal breaks, should we have been compensated for the days we worked without being paid the extra hour? There were a few months where it was just one other manager and I working, so we didn't get to take our lunch breaks because we didn't have overlap to do so.

Ok question #2
My company doesn't pay for split shifts. @ other retailers I worked for did pay for that if you worked a second time in a day. I asked my boss about that because I would report split shift hours for employees who did work twice, and the response I got was that the company didn't pay that. And another response I got was because it's not available on our time sheets. That doesn't seem like a valid answer to me.

Any feedback on these would be helpful, thanks!

CA lunch and break rules.

http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/FAQ_MealPeriods.htm
http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/FAQ_RestPeriods.htm

CA shift rules are taken from the Wage Orders (regulations). Technically you need to look at the Wage Order specific to your industry to make sure that your industry is required to follow the split shift rules:

http://www.dir.ca.gov/iwc/WageOrderIndustries.htm

4. Minimum Wages
... (C) When an employee works a split shift, one hour’s pay at the minimum wage shall be paid in addition to the minimum wage for that workday, except when the employee resides at the place of employment.