California Pay-stub Violations

Pay-stub violations occur when the employer fails to provide their employees with proper pay-stubs or gives them inaccurate pay-stubs.  Along with each paycheck, California labor laws require companies to provide a printed, itemized statement containing certain pieces of information related to the paycheck. The required pieces of information include:

  1. Total wages earned in the pay period;
  2. Total hours worked;
  3. Piece rate units and rate, if applicable;
  4. All deductions, including taxes and insurance premiums deducted;
  5. Total Net wages paid;
  6. The dates encompassed in the pay period;
  7. The name of the employee along with the last four digits of his/her social security number
  8. The name and address of the employer; and
  9. The regular and overtime hourly rates in effect for the given pay period

California Labor Code section 226 sets strict requirements for employee pay-stubs.  These pay-stub regulations are intended to allow each worker to ensure that he/she has been paid properly. If an employer fails to provide a complying pay-stub, it can result in pay-stub violations and possibly entitle the employee to recover certain penalties, which can be as much as high as $100 per employee for each pay period.  This can total several thousand dollars per employee over the course of a year.

In practice, many employers who fail to provide employees with accurate, itemized pay-stubs are doing so in an attempt to hide the fact that they are not paying the legally required overtime rates to employees. Additionally, certain industries are more likely to provide non-conforming pay-stubs than others. For example, we routinely see that our clients working as mechanics, plumbers, and other piece rate, commission, and “flag rate” employees have claims against the employers related to pay-stub violations.

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