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Quick Summary
If an employer fails to timely pay a former employee all owed wages, the employee's wages continue as a penalty until paid, for up to 30 days.
Law Review
Public policy in California has long favored the full and prompt payment of wages due an employee.
"The reasons for this penalty provision are clear. "Public policy has long favored the `full and prompt payment of wages due an employee.' [Citation.] `[W]ages are not ordinary debts. . . . [B]ecause of the economic position of the average worker and, in particular, his dependence on wages for the necessities of life for himself and his family, it is essential to the public welfare that he receive his pay' promptly." (Pressler v. Donald L. Bren Co. (1982) 32 Cal.3d 831, 837; see also Gould v. Maryland Sound Industries, Inc. (1995) 31 Cal.App.4th 1137, 1147.)." (Mamika v. Barka (1998) 68 Cal.App.4th 487.)
The penalty applies to the willful failure to pay "any wages," which refers to the definition of "wages" in Labor Code Section 200. Thus, all compensation must be considered in determining if all wages due were paid as prescribed by law. "Wages" does not include expenses. In calculating the penalty, overtime wages are considered only if overtime is regularly scheduled each week. Occasional or infrequent overtime is not considered in the calculation of the daily rate of pay for purposes of computing the penalty.
More Information is Available with a Premium Subscription
Whether taxes must be deducted from waiting time payments
Whether penalties are paid per work day, or per calendar day
If an employee is terminated late on a Friday, and their final check is available early Monday, are there penalties?
Must an employee show-up to demand a paycheck to be entitled to penalty payments?
Calculations for piece rate workers
Whether penalties are owed if wages are timely paid, but vacation pay is not
Whether penalties are paid to part-time employees
How the penalty is calculated
Over 15 examples of waiting time penalty situations and the calculation of damages
Text of pertinent statutes and cases
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