California is known for its strict protection of workers. This protection extends to the timely payment of wages due. You may have legal recourse if your employer fails to pay you when they say they will. Our San Francisco employment attorney with the Armstrong Law Firm is dedicated to providing individualized representation to assert your right to compensation for your employer’s illegal behavior.
What is a Late Payment of Wages?
California law requires employers to pay workers at least twice per calendar month on predesignated days. Additionally, the Department of Industrial Relations explains employers must pay you for time worked between the 1st and 15th of the month, between the 16th and 26th of that month. Hours worked between the 16th and last day of the month must be paid between the 1st and 10th day of the following month.
Late wage penalties still apply to wages such as final, vacation, overtime, or minimum wage. However, these payments may have different expectations in terms of due dates. This also applies to mean or rest premiums the employer does not pay timely.
Late Wage Penalties
Late wage penalties increase as violations are repetitive or determined willful. An initial violation will be penalized $100 for each failure to pay each employee. Following the first violations, or violations deemed willful, the fee is $200 per violation per employee plus 25% of the wages illegally withheld.
Late penalties will still be applied if the employer makes a partial payment to the employees. Labor Code demands all pages to be paid in full by the specified deadline to avoid these penalties.
AB 673
AB 673 was established in 2019, which allows employees to recover statutory penalties for these late payments through the Labor Commissioner’s Wage claim process. Previous legislation instilled civil penalties that were paid to the state, but until AB 673, the employee did not recover those costs.
Recourse for Late Wages
If your employer has failed to pay your full wages on time, you have a couple of options for recourse. You may file a wage claim through the Labor Commissioner’s Office to claim the statutory penalties that are applied to the employer. You may also report more widespread labor law violations of any kind that affect a group of workers.
Californians deserve pay on time, and many need it. When our pay doesn’t come when we expect it to, we may face our own late penalties on bills or financial obligations. These added financial pressures can cause unnecessary stress and anxiety in your life. Therefore, in extreme situations, you and your coworkers may be eligible to file a civil lawsuit that allows you to recover additional damages for the late payments.
State and federal laws protect you from adverse employment action. However, if you fear this may be a problem for you after you report your concerns, or if you think the late payments are intentional or targeted, you may consider working with an attorney who focuses on workplace retaliation or wrongful termination.