California plaintiffs’ lawyers typically bring every type of wage-hour claim they can. Increasingly, however, they have focused on one type of claim – wage statement violations.

As we have previously written about, bringing class and representative actions under California’s Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”) alleging that employers did not fully comply with California’s onerous wage statement laws has become a lucrative practice for the plaintiffs’ bar. Given the flurry of litigation, it is beneficial for employers that do business in California to review their wage statements to best ensure compliance.

The Basics

California’s wage statement requirements are mostly found in Labor Code section 226(a). Employers must, either semimonthly or at the time that wages are paid, provide to their employees “an accurate itemized statement in writing” showing the following pieces of information, each of which is discussed in further detail below:

• gross wages earned;
• total hours worked by the employee – except for salaried employees who are classified as exempt;
• if paid on a piece-rate basis, not only the number of piece-rate units earned and any applicable piece rate if the employee is paid on a piece-rate basis, but also other particularized requirements;
• all deductions, provided that all deductions made on written orders of the employee may be aggregated and shown as one item;
• net wages earned;
• the inclusive dates of the period for which the employee is paid;
• the name of the...

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