Cal. Lab. Code §§ 200-204, 510, 1194
Unpaid wages and overtime: three years, four with a UCL claim, and one-way fees
A claim in California superior courts · Last verified August 26, 2026
California wage law diverges from the federal standard at the most basic point. Overtime begins after eight hours in a day, not only after forty in a week. An employee who works four ten-hour days is owed overtime in California and owed nothing under the federal statute.
Two other features shape every one of these cases. A prevailing employee recovers attorney's fees and the employer does not — a one-way statute. And the Labor Commissioner is an alternative, not a prerequisite: you may file there, but you may also go straight to the superior court.
What the claim is
Your employer did not pay you what the law or your agreement required — unpaid straight time, unpaid overtime, minimum wage shortfalls, missed meal or rest period premiums, or final wages not paid on time.
Where the right comes from
Labor Code §§ 200-204 govern what wages are and when they must be paid.
Labor Code § 510 sets the overtime structure: one and one-half times the regular rate for hours over eight in a workday or forty in a workweek, and for the first eight hours on the seventh consecutive day; double time for hours over twelve in a day and for hours over eight on that seventh day.
Labor Code § 1194 supplies the private right of action, and it is the important one — an employee receiving less than the legal minimum wage or overtime may recover the unpaid balance plus interest, reasonable attorney's fees, and costs, and that right cannot be waived by agreement.
The Industrial Welfare Commission wage orders add industry-specific requirements and are where meal and rest period rules, reporting time pay, and split shift premiums live.
There is no single CACI instruction for the claim, because it is statutory and the elements track whichever provision was violated.
What a plaintiff has to prove
- An employment relationship — the defendant employed the plaintiff.
- The plaintiff performed work for which wages were owed.
- The employer failed to pay the wages required by statute, wage order, or agreement.
- The amount owed.
Element one carries the biggest fight in modern wage cases. In Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903 the Supreme Court adopted the ABC test for wage order claims, under which a worker is presumed an employee unless the hiring entity proves all three: the worker is free from control, performs work outside the usual course of the business, and is customarily engaged in an independently established trade of the same nature. The Legislature codified and modified it in AB 5, now Labor Code § 2775, with a long list of exemptions.
Element four is where recordkeeping matters. Where the employer failed to keep the records the law requires, courts do not let that failure defeat the claim — the employee may prove the amount by reasonable inference, and the burden shifts to the employer to negate it.
How long you have to file
Three years under CCP § 338(a), as a liability created by statute. That is the default.
Four years if you add a UCL claim. Unpaid wages are restitution, and Business and Professions Code § 17200 carries a flat four-year period. Pleading the wage claim as an unfair business practice buys a fourth year, and it is one of the most common reasons the UCL appears in employment complaints.
Four years on a written contract under CCP § 337, where the wages were promised in writing at a rate above the statutory floor.
One year for PAGA civil penalties under CCP § 340.
And the waiting-time penalty gets three years, not one. In Pineda v. Bank of America (2010) 50 Cal.4th 1389 the Supreme Court held that a claim for the § 203 penalty carries a three-year period even when the employee seeks the penalty alone and the underlying wages were paid. That question had divided the lower courts, and the answer is generous to employees.
What has to happen before you file
Nothing — for the wage claim itself.
The Labor Commissioner route is an alternative forum, not a gate. An employee may file a wage claim with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement and get a "Berman" hearing, which is cheaper and faster than litigation. Or the employee may file suit. Choosing court is not a failure to exhaust.
The Supreme Court said so directly in Murphy v. Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc. (2007) 40 Cal.4th 1094, holding meal and rest period premiums are wages rather than penalties and that no administrative exhaustion is required before suing for them.
Character: none. There is no pre-suit prerequisite.
PAGA is the exception, and it is a real one. A representative claim under the Private Attorneys General Act requires written notice to the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and the employer, and compliance with the statute's cure procedure, under Labor Code § 2699.3, before the PAGA claim may be filed.
Character: a mandatory claim-processing requirement. It is not jurisdictional in the strict sense, but it is mandatory, it is enforced, and PAGA claims are dismissed for failing it. The underlying individual wage claims are unaffected — only the PAGA penalties depend on the notice.
Who can be sued — and who cannot
The employer.
And individual owners and officers — since 2016. This reversed on a specific date, and the older rule is still repeated.
In Reynolds v. Bement (2005) 36 Cal.4th 1075 the Supreme Court held that corporate agents acting within the scope of their agency are not personally liable for the corporation's failure to pay wages.
The Legislature overrode that. Labor Code § 558.1, effective January 1, 2016, makes an "owner, director, officer, or managing agent" who violates or causes a violation of specified wage provisions personally liable as an employer.
So the answer to "can I sue the owner personally" changed from no to yes, and anything written before 2016 gets it wrong.
Joint employers and client employers can also be reached, including through the Labor Code provision imposing shared liability for workers supplied by a labor contractor.
Common defenses
Exempt status — executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, or computer professional. The employer bears the burden, the exemptions are narrowly construed, and the employee must generally spend more than half their time on exempt duties and meet a salary threshold.
Independent contractor status, now tested under the ABC test and its statutory exemptions.
The hours were not worked, or the time was not compensable.
A good faith dispute over whether wages were owed. This does not defeat the wage claim, but it defeats the § 203 waiting-time penalty, which is where most of the money in a small case sits.
And since 2024, good faith defeats the wage statement penalty too. In a second appearance by the same case, Naranjo v. Spectrum Security Services, Inc., decided May 6, 2024, the Supreme Court held that an employer's objectively reasonable, good faith belief that its wage statements complied means the failure was not "knowing and intentional," and no § 226(e) penalty may be awarded. An employer that was mistaken but reasonable pays the wages and escapes the penalty. Because the two penalty provisions now turn on similar reasoning, a good faith dispute can take out both.
The employee was paid, including through a properly credited bonus or premium.
Arbitration. Individual wage claims are routinely compelled to arbitration; the treatment of PAGA representative claims has moved repeatedly and should be checked against current law before relying on either answer.
The limitations periods.
What the claim pays
The unpaid wages, plus prejudgment interest.
Liquidated damages under Labor Code § 1194.2 equal to the unpaid minimum wages and interest — note the limit, which is constantly misread: liquidated damages attach to minimum wage violations, not to unpaid overtime.
The waiting-time penalty under Labor Code § 203 for wilfully failing to pay final wages on time — the employee's daily wage for each day the wages are late, up to thirty days. On a $200 daily wage that is $6,000, and it frequently exceeds the underlying unpaid wages.
Wage statement penalties under Labor Code § 226(e) for inaccurate or incomplete itemised statements — the greater of actual damages or $50 for the first pay period and $100 for each one after, capped at $4,000, plus costs and fees. Subject to the good faith defense above.
Meal and rest period premiums of one additional hour of pay per day at the regular rate. Under Naranjo v. Spectrum Security Services, Inc. (2022) 13 Cal.5th 93, those premiums are wages, so failing to pay them can trigger derivative waiting-time and wage-statement liability — which is how a premium claim becomes a much larger number.
Attorney's fees and costs to a prevailing employee under § 1194 — one-way. The employer recovers nothing on the minimum wage and overtime claims.
PAGA civil penalties, shared with the state.
Jury trial: yes on the legal claims. Not on a paired UCL claim.
What people get wrong
"Overtime starts at forty hours." In California it starts after eight in a day, and double time starts after twelve.
"I have to go to the Labor Commissioner first." You do not. It is an alternative forum, not a prerequisite.
"I'm salaried, so I'm exempt." Salary is one requirement of an exemption, not the whole of it. The duties test governs, and the employer must prove it.
"I can't sue the owner personally." You often can, under Labor Code § 558.1 since 2016. The older case saying otherwise was overridden.
"Liquidated damages double my overtime." They do not. They equal unpaid minimum wages.
"They only owe me the wages." The waiting-time penalty can add up to thirty days of pay on top, and the premium-pay decisions can add wage statement penalties as well.
"Missing a meal break is a small claim." It compounds. Premiums are wages, and unpaid wages generate derivative penalties.
"I signed away my overtime rights." Section 1194 rights cannot be waived by agreement.
Where it came from
California's wage protections predate the federal ones and were written to a different standard — the daily overtime rule reflects a legislative judgment about the length of a working day, not the length of a working week, and it has survived every attempt to align the state with the federal forty-hour baseline.
Three developments define the modern claim.
Murphy (2007) settled that meal and rest premiums are wages, which brought them inside the three-year period and eliminated any exhaustion argument.
Dynamex (2018) and AB 5 rewrote who counts as an employee, converting a large share of wage litigation into a classification fight.
And PAGA reform in 2024 changed the representative claim substantially. Legislation signed on July 1, 2024 — applying to LWDA notices filed on or after June 19, 2024 — requires the plaintiff to have personally experienced the violations alleged, expands the employer's ability to cure, caps penalties for employers who take reasonable steps toward compliance, and raises the employees' share of penalties from 25% to 35%.
One widely-repeated version of the reform is wrong. It did not cut the default per-pay-period penalty from $100 to $50 across the board. The $100 default drops to $50 only where the violation resulted from an isolated, non-recurring event lasting under 30 consecutive days or four consecutive pay periods. For an ongoing practice, the default is still $100.
Because the reform turns on the notice date, cases filed on either side of June 19, 2024 are governed by different rules, and will be for years.
Common questions
When does overtime start in California?
After eight hours in a workday or forty in a workweek, at one and one-half times the regular rate. Double time applies after twelve hours in a day. The daily rule is the main difference from federal law.
Do I have to file with the Labor Commissioner before I sue?
No. The Labor Commissioner's wage claim process is an alternative to court, not a prerequisite. You may file suit directly. PAGA representative claims are different — those require written notice to the state agency first.
How long do I have to sue for unpaid wages?
Three years for most statutory wage claims. Adding an unfair competition claim extends the reach to four years, and a written contract claim can also carry four. PAGA penalties carry one year.
Can I sue the owner of the company personally?
Often yes. Since 2016, Labor Code § 558.1 makes an owner, director, officer, or managing agent who causes a wage violation personally liable. An earlier Supreme Court decision said otherwise, and the Legislature overrode it.
Will I have to pay my own attorney?
Not if you prevail on a minimum wage or overtime claim. Labor Code § 1194 awards fees and costs to a prevailing employee, and the employer recovers nothing if it wins.
My employer says I'm exempt because I'm on salary. Is that right?
Not by itself. An exemption requires both a salary at the statutory threshold and duties that are exempt — generally more than half your time. The employer bears the burden, and exemptions are narrowly construed.