You worked the hours. You were not paid for them.

California wage law is more protective than federal law, and where the two differ, the more generous rule generally applies.

Each missed, short, late, or interrupted break carries a premium of one hour of pay, one for meal violations, one for rest violations, per workday. The California Supreme Court has held that premium is paid at the regular rate of compensation, so many premiums were underpaid even when paid.

Waiting-time penalties: under §203, an employer that willfully pays final wages late may owe your daily rate for each late day, up to 30 days. More terms in the glossary.

Related reading: California Overtime Pay: Daily, Weekly, and Double-Time Rules

Two classification decisions quietly erase most wage protections, and both are frequently wrong.

“You’re salaried, so no overtime”

Salary alone does not make you exempt. Under the executive, administrative, and professional exemptions, an employee must generally earn a monthly salary of at least twice the state minimum wage for full-time work and be primarily engaged in exempt duties: more than half of actual working time, judged by what you do, not your title.

Exempt vs. non-exempt: non-exempt employees are covered by overtime, meal, and rest rules; exempt employees are not. A title, a salary, and a signed acknowledgment do not settle it.

If your assistant manager title comes with a shift spent running the register, stocking, and covering call-outs, the exemption may not hold.

“You’re an independent contractor”

California applies the ABC test (§2775) to most wage claims. You are presumed an employee unless the business proves all three: you are free from its control in performing the work; the work is outside the usual course of its business; and you independently run a trade of the same nature.

The middle prong is where most classifications fail. If a company sells delivery and you deliver, the label is hard to defend.

Related reading: Employee or Independent Contractor in California? The ABC Test Explained

Deadlines depend on the facts of your situation. Do not rely on this page to calculate yours. A Labor Commissioner claim and a lawsuit run on different clocks.

Related reading: When Is My Final Paycheck Due in California? Deadlines and Waiting-Time Penalties

The Private Attorneys General Act lets an employee pursue civil penalties the state would otherwise collect. You file written notice with the state labor agency; if it declines the case, you may proceed in court on the state’s behalf for penalties covering violations affecting coworkers as well as you. A share of the recovery goes to affected employees, the rest to the state. PAGA usually runs alongside your own claim rather than replacing it, and the notice deadline is short.

Wage cases are won on documents. The employer holds most of them and is required to keep them; gaps are read against it.

1. Download every pay stub now, before portal access ends.
2. Keep your own time record: date, in, out, breaks actually taken.
3. Photograph posted schedules before they are replaced, and save anything describing your duties.
4. Note who else worked the same shifts under the same rules.

Whether the Labor Commissioner or Superior Court is the better forum depends on facts this page does not have.

Unpaid wage claims are additive. One misclassification can generate overtime, meal premiums, rest premiums, wage statement penalties, and waiting-time penalties from the same facts, with interest on the wages.

Employees who prevail may recover those wages and premiums, interest, statutory penalties, and attorney’s fees and costs under several of these statutes. No result can be promised.

Taylor DeRosa is recognized in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America, Labor and Employment Law – Employee, every year since 2024.

Nearly a decade of employee-side litigation, most of it at Rizio Lipinsky Heiting, PC, stands behind the practice, including a $41,098,250 verdict, obtained as trial counsel with Rizio Lipinsky. We are one attorney. Your pay records get read once, by the person who will argue them.

Every case is different. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome; each result depends on the specific facts and law of that matter.

A wage claim can start at the Labor Commissioner or in court, and the Labor Commissioner keeps offices serving Orange County, Los Angeles, and the Inland Empire. Wage suits from this region are commonly filed in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, or in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, or Riverside Superior Court where the employer sits there. A Labor Commissioner claim and a lawsuit run on different clocks, so the choice is worth making early.

We represent employees across Orange County, Los Angeles County, and the Inland Empire, including Santa Ana, Irvine, Anaheim, Ontario, and Riverside.