Your Final Paycheck in California and Waiting-Time Penalties

When the final paycheck is due

The deadline depends on how the job ended. Labor Code §201 covers discharge: when an employer fires an employee or lays them off without a specific return date, wages earned and unpaid are generally due immediately. Labor Code §202 covers resignation: an employee who quits without notice is generally owed final wages within 72 hours, while an employee who gives at least 72 hours' notice is generally owed them at the time of quitting.

Special rules exist for some industries, such as certain seasonal, film and oil drilling work, and for employees who are laid off at the end of a project. If you are unsure which rule applies, keep the date and time you left and the date you actually received your pay.

• Fired or laid off: generally immediately, on your last day
• Quit with at least 72 hours' notice: generally on your last day
• Quit without notice: generally within 72 hours

What the final paycheck should include

The final paycheck should include all wages earned and unpaid. That covers regular hours, overtime, earned commissions and bonuses that are due under their plan, and premiums for missed meal or rest breaks. Under Labor Code §227.3, vested vacation that you have not used must generally be paid out at your final rate of pay. California does not allow use-it-or-lose-it vacation policies that take away vacation you already earned.

Paid sick leave is treated differently. California law does not generally require employers to pay out unused sick leave at termination, unless the employer combines sick leave and vacation into a single paid time off bank, in which case it is usually treated like vacation.

Waiting-time penalties

If an employer willfully fails to pay final wages on time, Labor Code §203 allows the employee's daily wages to continue as a penalty from the due date until the wages are paid or a lawsuit is filed, for up to 30 days. Willful generally means the employer intentionally failed to pay, not that it had bad intent. A good-faith dispute about whether wages are owed can be a defense.

For a full-time employee, 30 days of wages can be a significant amount, sometimes more than the unpaid wages themselves. That is one reason final pay disputes are often worth checking even when the missing amount seems small.

How to claim what you are owed

Start by asking the employer in writing for the missing wages, with your calculation. If that does not work, you can file a wage claim with the California Labor Commissioner's Office, which holds conferences and hearings and can issue an award. You can also bring a claim in court, sometimes together with other claims such as wrongful termination.

Limitation periods apply to wage claims. Many claims based on the Labor Code must be brought within three years, but the period depends on the type of claim. An attorney can tell you which route fits your case and how far back you can go.