Are you owed pay from a California job?
California wage law may entitle you to unpaid overtime, missed break premiums and unreimbursed expenses. Deadlines, filing routes and available remedies depend on what happened and which law applies.
Not sure the math is off? You can request a review even without your pay records in hand.
Updated August 21, 2026
California has some of the strongest wage protections in the country. Most nonexempt employees are owed overtime after eight hours in a day or forty in a week, paid rest breaks and duty-free meal periods, reimbursement for necessary work expenses, and accurate pay stubs, and unpaid wages can usually be recovered for three years, or four as an unfair business practice. When one policy shorts a whole job the same way, the claim is often brought as a class or representative action.
Wage-and-hour information by city in California
Select your city for locally relevant filing information, agency routes, and a case review with your state already selected.
- FresnoWage-and-hour information
- Long BeachWage-and-hour information
- Los AngelesWage-and-hour information
- Orange CountyWage-and-hour information
- RiversideWage-and-hour information
- SacramentoWage-and-hour information
- San BernardinoWage-and-hour information
- San DiegoWage-and-hour information
- San FranciscoWage-and-hour information
- San JoseWage-and-hour information
What California law requires.
The rules that most often get broken, each linked to the statute or agency guidance it comes from. More on California wage rules: California Labor Commissioner (DLSE) ↗.
For most nonexempt employees, 1.5x the regular rate past 8 hours in a workday and 40 in a workweek, and 2x past 12 hours in a day, with extra rules for a seventh consecutive workday, subject to exemptions and valid alternative-workweek schedules.
Most nonexempt employees generally receive a 30-minute meal period before the end of the fifth hour and a paid 10-minute rest period per four hours worked (or major fraction), with a one-hour premium for each workday a required break is not provided, subject to waivers and exceptions.
All hours worked must be paid at least the minimum wage, and an employee can recover unpaid minimum and overtime wages, interest, costs, and attorney's fees.
Employers must reimburse all necessary expenditures an employee incurs in direct consequence of doing the job.
For most workers, you are presumed an employee unless the hiring business proves all three parts of the ABC test, subject to statutory exceptions; being labeled a contractor does not by itself waive these wage protections.
Final wages are due immediately on discharge, and within 72 hours on a quit, or at quitting if the employee gave at least 72 hours' notice; a willful failure can add a waiting-time penalty of up to 30 days' pay.
Itemized wage statements must show nine specified items; a knowing and intentional violation that causes injury carries statutory damages.
Unpaid wages, missed breaks, and misclassification add up fast, often across a whole crew. A free, private review tells you what you may be owed.
How long you have.
Many statutory California wage claims reach back three years, and a separate Unfair Competition Law claim can reach four years for restitution; the wage-statement-penalty claim runs on a shorter one-year clock. The limit generally runs from each underpaid paycheck, so the oldest weeks fall off first.