Last year was a significant year for California’s Private Attorneys General Act (known as “PAGA”), the 18-year old wage-and-hour enforcement act that, according to one study, has generated over 20,000 lawsuits against employers over the past five years costing employers, on average, over $1.1 million per case. On its face, PAGA purports to improve enforcement of the California Labor Code by empowering employees to pursue violations that the state enforcement agencies lack resources to take on themselves. Whether it achieves that result is debatable, but it has clearly become a major profit generator for employee-side employment lawyers, who average fees around $372,000 per case. Immune from both class certification requirements and arbitration agreements, PAGA stands as a sometimes unsurmountable challenge for employers who are often forced into settlements because the cost of defending the claims is too great.
There are some signs in the courts and the Legislature, however, that some relief may be on the way. As we enter a new year, we take a look back at PAGA in 2021, and where we see the law headed in 2022.
Court of Appeals Imposes A Manageability Hurdle
One slight reprieve employers received in 2021 is the imposition of a “manageability” requirement on PAGA claims. PAGA allows a current or former employee to sue on behalf of other “aggrieved employees,” so long as the employee experienced at least one of the Labor Code violations alleged “regardless of whether the...
FERNDALE, Wash. — On March 30, 2026, Merissa G. Saenz, 27, was sentenced in Whatcom County Superior Court after pleading guilty to malicious prosecution and entering an Alford plea to making a fal...