California Wage Statement Rules: What Must Be Shown and What to Do If Your Pay Stub Has Errors

California employers must provide accurate pay stubs detailing wages, deductions, hours, and other required information under state labor laws. Employees may seek penalties, back pay, and legal action if wage statements contain errors or missing details.

By Brad Nakase, Attorney

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. What must appear on a pay stub in California?

3. Workers on a piece rate

4. What transpires if I happen to be an employee who is exempt?

5. What will happen if my employer does not follow the rules pertaining to wage statements?

6. Does my company have the authority to correct the pay stub’s errors?

7. Is it within my rights to review the payroll records?

8. Do home and domestic services qualify for an exemption?

Introduction

Employers in California are legally obligated to provide workers with a pay stub that contains specific information. This is to guarantee that payee information, wages, and deductions are accurate and compliant with state law. A wage & hour lawsuit may result from incomplete or inaccurate information. Employees are also entitled to view their payroll records.

What must appear on a pay stub in California?

California firms are required to give their workers pay stubs or detailed wage statements. Pay stubs for these employees must be submitted on the paydays or at least once every two months. Section 226(a) of the California Labor Code mandates that the categorized wage statements on these pay stubs contain the following details:

Identification of employees: Your complete name and either your employee identification number or the final four digits of your SSN (Social Security number)
Identification of the employer: The name and address of the business
Period of pay: The dates included in the salary statement’s pay period
Hourly pay: This should be at least $16.50 per hour in California.
Work hours: The overall number of hours worked at each rate during the pay period, as well as the proportion of time spent on overtime, if any (for salaried or exempt personnel, hours worked aren’t required).
Gross wages: Gross Wages are all earnings before deductions are made. These include piece-rate payments, commissions, task-based/project payments, standard/fixed wages, and salary for overtime. Accommodation, board, and clothes may also be part of this (if provided as part of the compensation).
Deductions: These comprise contributions to retirement plans (like 401(k) s), health insurance premiums, social security & tax withholdings, and itemized deductions.
Net Wages: Whatever amount remains after all deductions have been made from your gross income is known as your net wage.
PTO: The total amount of paid vacation or sick leave accrued throughout the pay period; if appropriate, employers may enter “unlimited.”

Workers on a piece rate

The wage statements must contain the following if you receive compensation on a piece-rate basis as opposed to an hourly basis:

The number of piece rate products you generated, as well as the corresponding piece rate.

The pay slips for piece-rate employees must additionally, if relevant, include:

Gross pay for nonproductive time, recuperation, and rest breaks, the hourly rate for hours paid in each category, and the total number of hours worked during compensated nonproductive time.

The pay stub must show the rate of pay and the number of hours worked for every job if the company you work for is a contractual service employer, also referred to as a temp agency.

Even if you get paid in cash, your pay stub needs to have all of this information. Nonetheless, wage statements are typically a separate section of the paycheck or the electronic deposit statement that comes with your salary.

California’s wage & hour rules may be broken if any of this necessary information is omitted or is inaccurate. You might be able to take legal action.

What transpires if I happen to be an employee who is exempt?

The number of hours you worked throughout the pay period is not required to be shown on your pay stub if you qualify as an exempt employee.

Instead of receiving an hourly rate, exempt employees receive a salary. Additionally, they are free from a number of California wage & hour requirements. For instance, they aren’t eligible for overtime compensation.

You need to fulfill certain qualifications in order to be considered an exempt employee (according to employment laws in California), such as the following:

Administrative exemption,
Professional exemption,
Executive exemption, or
Computer professional exemption.

These typically require you to execute certain job requirements and earn far more than the minimum pay.

You might be able to bring a misclassification claim if you were mistakenly designated as exempt. Since they want to reduce their expenses, employers commonly misclassify California workers as exempt.

What will happen if my employer does not follow the rules pertaining to wage statements?

There can be a paystub breach if there are errors or missing information on your paystub. The labor regulations of California are being broken by these. A wage & hour lawsuit may be brought under the Private Attorneys General Act or submitted to the California DLSE’s (Division of Labor Standards Enforcement) labor commissioner if:

Your employer purposefully and deliberately disregarded California’s regulations pertaining to wage statements, and
Because of that failure, you were hurt.

This noncompliance with the law does you harm whenever you:

Do not obtain a pay stub or wage statement, or
Unable to quickly and simply determine whether there’s missing or inaccurate data based only on the wage statement.

If so, you are able to recover:

Civil fines or, if more, your underpaid salary,
The costs of your lawyers, and
The price of bringing the case.

The first paystub infringement carries a $50 civil penalty, and each subsequent period of pay with a violation carries a $100 penalty. Penalties for pay stub violations might reach up to $4,000 in total.

Class action lawsuits are a common outcome of these situations. It’s likely that other employees are also missing their salaries if the company is not fulfilling its wage statement duties.

Seeking the legal counsel of an employment lawyer from a respectable law firm is essential prior to initiating these actions.

Does my company have the authority to correct the pay stub’s errors?

Your employer may occasionally be entitled to the opportunity to fix inaccuracies on your pay stub. They only have this chance, according to California state law, if the mistake is to the:

The address and name of the business that employs you, or
The dates of your paychecks are on the salary statement.

After you inform your employer of the infraction, they have 33 days to correct these errors. After that, they must give you a fully conforming pay stub for every pay period over the three years before the notice.

Is it within my rights to review the payroll records?

Examining your payroll records may be useful if you believe your company is violating wage statements. You have the right to accomplish that in California.

Requests to access payroll records can be made verbally or in writing by both current and past employees. The company you work for has 21 days from the date of receipt to make them accessible. Your employer is required by law to retain these documents for a minimum of three years. Although your employer may charge a reproduction fee, you can also ask for a copy of those records.

It is illegal for your employer to withhold your paycheck records. The fine is $750.

Do home and domestic services qualify for an exemption?

Yes. When an individual hires contractors, housekeepers, nannies, or au pairs to take care of the house or kids, pay stub regulations typically do not apply.

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California Wage Statement Rules: What Must Be Shown and What to Do If Your Pay Stub Has Errors

Introduction

What must appear on a pay stub in California?

Workers on a piece rate

What transpires if I happen to be an employee who is exempt?

What will happen if my employer does not follow the rules pertaining to wage statements?

Does my company have the authority to correct the pay stub’s errors?

Is it within my rights to review the payroll records?

Do home and domestic services qualify for an exemption?

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