California’s Wage Theft Prevention Act requires that employers give detailed notice to each employee about what wages and benefits they will receive for their labor.
The Wage Theft Prevention Act notice requirements help California workers keep track of their employer’s compliance with state and federal wage and hour laws. And if your employer doesn’t provide you with notice or adequately pay you, you might be entitled to back wages or penalties.
At Workplace Rights Law Group, our award-winning legal team can help ensure that your employer does not cut corners when it comes to your wages or rights. We can also help ensure that you get paid everything you have earned.
If you would like to speak with a California wage & hour lawyer, please call us at 818-405-9051 today.
What Are the Wage Theft Prevention Act Notice Requirements?
Whenever an employer hires an employee, it must give the employee a written Wage Theft Prevention Act notice that includes the following:
- The rate of pay for the employee, including whether the employee is paid weekly, hourly, daily, monthly, per shift, by piece, or on commission;
- The regular day for paying its employees;
- Information about the employee’s right to accrue and use sick leave, including the right to accumulate and use sick leave without experiencing workplace retaliation;
- Information about allowances the employer claims as part of the minimum wage (e.g., lodging, meals, etc.);
- The employer’s telephone number;
- The employer’s principal or main office address and its mailing address;
- Any other names the employer uses for doing business; and
- The name, telephone number, and address of the employer’s workers’ compensation insurance provider.
This notice has to be in the language the employer usually uses to communicate employment matters to the employee. And if information in the notice changes, an employer must notify its employee in writing within seven days.
However, state and local government employees, overtime-exempt employees, and employees under certain collective bargaining agreements are not entitled to receive the above notice.
In addition to initial notice about your wage rates and benefits, your employer generally needs to give you detailed information about your earnings during each pay period. This notice should let you know the following:
- The gross wages you earned;
- Your net wages;
- Your total hours worked;
- Deductions that have been taken from your pay;
- Dates of the pay period;
- If you are paid on a piece-rate basis, the piece rate applicable to your work and the number of piece-rate units you earned;
- Your name and the last four digits of your social security number (or other identification number);
- Your employer’s name and address; and
- The hourly rates applicable to the pay period and the number of hours you worked at each rate.
Your employer can include this information on the detachable part of your paycheck or on a separate document (if you receive payment by a personal check or cash).
What Happens If an Employer Fails to Give You Notice?
An employer that intentionally fails to give its employee written information about their pay rates, hours, and earnings must pay for this failure. An employee that is harmed by this failure has the right to receive the greater of the following:
- A payment that covers all of their related losses, or
- Penalty payments that include $50 for the first violation and $100 for each following pay period in which there is a violation.
In a claim, a harmed employee also has the right to recover costs and attorney fees. We can review the circumstances of your case and initiate legal action to make sure that you receive all damages and penalties available to you if your employer breaks a state wage law.
Contact Workplace Rights Law Group Today
Your employer should not keep you in the dark about the money you have earned. But if you find that your employer does not give you the notice or the pay that it owes you, our experienced wage and hour attorneys at Workplace Rights Law Group can step in to fix the situation.
We have recovered millions of dollars on behalf of mistreated California workers, and we are ready to fight for you.
Call us at 818-405-9051 or contact us online to schedule a consultation.
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Theo Khachaturian
Theo is a trial & appellate lawyer whose practice has emphasized wage-and-hour class actions, business disputes, wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, and intellectual property theft. He has tried civil cases and argued before various California Courts of Appeal.