When is my final paycheck due in California?

What the law says

When your job ends, California law sets a deadline for your last paycheck. The deadline depends on how the job ended.

• You were fired. Your wages are “due and payable immediately” (Labor Code § 201(a)).
• You were laid off. The Labor Code does not define “discharge”; it mentions layoffs only for seasonal canning and oil drilling. The Labor Commissioner, which enforces it, says a discharge “includes a layoff,” so wages are due immediately. Its Enforcement Manual says that rule is for a layoff “without a specific return date within the normal pay period.” If you have a return date within the pay period and are scheduled to go back, “the wages may be paid at the next regular pay day” (DLSE Manual § 3.2.2).
• You quit and gave at least 72 hours’ notice. You are owed your wages “at the time of quitting” (§ 202(a)).
• You quit without 72 hours’ notice. Your wages are due “not later than 72 hours” after you quit (§ 202(a)).

The rules for quitting in § 202 are for an employee “not having a written contract for a definite period.”

You and your employer cannot agree to different deadlines. The law says these rules cannot “be contravened or set aside by a private agreement, whether written, oral, or implied” (§ 219(a)).

The details

What the final check includes. “Wages” means “all amounts for labor performed,” whether figured “by the standard of time, task, piece, commission basis, or other method of calculation” (§ 200(a)).

Vacation. If your job “provides for paid vacations,” all vested vacation you have not used “shall be paid to him as wages at his final rate” (§ 227.3). A contract or policy “shall not provide for forfeiture of vested vacation time upon termination.” A union contract can set other terms: the section starts “Unless otherwise provided by a collective-bargaining agreement.”

Sick leave. Your employer does not have to pay you for “accrued, unused paid sick days” when you leave (§ 246(g)(1)). If the same employer rehires you “within one year,” your unused sick days come back (§ 246(g)(2)).

Where you are paid. If you are fired, you are paid “at the place of discharge.” If you quit, you are paid at the employer’s office “in the county where the employee has been performing labor” (§ 208). If you quit without notice, you can ask for the check by mail instead (§ 202(a)).

Direct deposit. Your employer can pay final wages by direct deposit only if you have “voluntarily authorized that deposit,” and it must still meet the deadlines above (§ 213(d)).

If your employer disputes part of what you are owed. It must still pay, “without condition,” the wages it agrees are due (§ 206(a)). It cannot make you sign a release of a wage claim before it pays the wages due. A release signed that way “shall be null and void” (§ 206.5(a)).

The penalty for paying late. If an employer “willfully fails to pay” final wages on time, your wages “continue as a penalty from the due date thereof at the same rate.” They stop when you are paid or when a court action for them is started, and “shall not continue for more than 30 days” (§ 203(a)).

Whether the penalty applies depends on one fact: was the failure “willful”? A regulation defines it. A willful failure “occurs when an employer intentionally fails to pay wages to an employee when those wages are due.” But “a good faith dispute that any wages are due” stops the penalty (8 CCR § 13520). The penalty also does not run while an employee hides or stays away “to avoid payment,” or “refuses to receive the payment when fully tendered” (§ 203(a)).

Exceptions the law names. Some jobs have their own deadlines:

• A group laid off at the end of a season “in the curing, canning, or drying” of perishable fruit, fish or vegetables: within a “reasonable time,” not more than 72 hours (§ 201(a)).
• Oil drilling layoffs: within 24 hours, “excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays” (§ 201.7).
• Temporary staffing agencies (§ 201.3), motion picture and broadcasting production (§ 201.5), print shoots (§ 201.6), professional baseball venues (§ 201.8), and live theater or concert venues that hire through a union hiring hall (§ 201.9) each have their own section.

Public jobs. These final-pay sections “do not apply” to employees “directly employed by any county, incorporated city, or town or other municipal corporation” (§ 220(b)). State employees are covered, with some sections left out (§ 220(a)).

What to do next

1. Write down the facts while they are fresh. Note your last day, how the job ended, any notice you gave and when, and the date and amount of any final payment.
2. Keep your records. Save pay stubs, your schedule, any written notice, and your employer’s vacation or paid time off policy.
3. File a wage claim if you were not paid. The Labor Commissioner’s Office handles wage claims. Its page says “Wage claims can be filed online, by email, mail or in person.” The Labor Commissioner can hold a hearing to recover “wages, penalties, and other demands for compensation” (§ 98(a)).
4. Do not wait too long. For the penalty, the law says “Suit may be filed for these penalties at any time before the expiration of the statute of limitations on an action for the wages from which the penalties arise” (§ 203(b)).

This guide covers California state law. It is legal information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Labor Code § 201, Wages due on discharge
2. Labor Code § 202, Wages due when an employee quits
3. Labor Code § 219, No private agreement can set aside these rules
4. Labor Code § 200, What counts as wages
5. Labor Code § 227.3, Vested vacation paid at the end of the job
6. Labor Code § 246, Unused paid sick days at separation
7. Labor Code § 208, Where final wages are paid
8. Labor Code § 213, Final wages by direct deposit
9. Labor Code § 206, Wages not in dispute must be paid
10. Labor Code § 206.5, No release required to get wages due
11. Labor Code § 203, Waiting-time penalty
12. 8 CCR § 13520, Definition of "willful"
13. Labor Code § 201.3, Temporary services employers
14. Labor Code § 201.5, Motion picture and broadcasting production
15. Labor Code § 201.6, Print shoot employees
16. Labor Code § 201.7, Oil drilling layoffs
17. Labor Code § 201.8, Professional baseball venue events employees
18. Labor Code § 201.9, Live theatrical and concert venues, union hiring halls
19. Labor Code § 220, Public employers
20. DLSE Enforcement Policies and Interpretations Manual § 3.2.2, Layoffs and the return date
21. Labor Code § 98, Labor Commissioner hearings on wage claims
22. Labor Commissioner, Waiting Time Penalty FAQ, Waiting time penalty
23. Labor Commissioner, How to File a Wage Claim, How to file a wage claim

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