How Long Can Your Employer Wait to Pay You?
For many employees, their relationship with their employer is a good one. This is especially true in smaller companies, where the company can seem like a “family,” and where supervisors or owners may also be friends or people that employees have grown close to.
When these kinds of companies fall on hard or slow economic times, and they ask if you can wait for your check, or if they can pay you a little late, it is very tempting to say yes. Whether you agree to this or not is up to you—but the law does put restrictions on how long an employer can wait to give you money that you have earned.
Time Limits to Pay Employees
An employer generally has fourteen days to pay you for work performed. Putting that in calendar days, that means any work you do the first two weeks of a month, needs to be paid to you, by or in, the second two weeks of that month (really, by the 26th of the month, so it is actually a few days short of a full two weeks).
If you are entitled to overtime pay, the employer has a bit longer to pay you. Generally, an employer has two payroll periods, before they have to include overtime pay in your check.
Note that things like legal holidays, may push these time frames out a bit. The same goes for unionized employees, where pay schedules may be dictated by any applicable union collective bargaining agreements.
When Delays are Allowed
Temporary, one time delays in payment, are allowable, if there is a legitimate business reason. For example, if the employer wanted to change the dates in the month that you actually get your check, and that requires waiting a few extra days to pay you to get on a new pay schedule, that is legal, so long as the employer doesn’t continually switch dates, delay paychecks, etc.
Sometimes, a paycheck is issued, but there is an error on it. California gives employers 30 days to correct paycheck errors.
Penalties for Late Payments Penalties are rules pursuant to California Labor laws. They are independent of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a federal law that governs how employees are paid, and when they are entitled to overtime.
Employers who are late making payroll, or who are late giving out paychecks, can face serious fines from the State of California. Penalties can be hundreds of dollars per employee who was not paid on time. Penalties go up if the late paycheck problem happens over and over again, or if withholding the pay was malicious, spiteful or intentional.
For uncorrected paycheck errors, the employer can be fined by having to pay the employee an entire days’ wages, for every day that the error goes uncorrected.
If you are waiting too long to get paid, or not getting paid at all for your work, we can help. Contact the San Jose employment attorneys at the Costanzo Law Firm today.
Sources:
dir.ca.gov/dlse/Late-Payment-of-Wages.htm
jibble.io/labor-laws/us-state-labor-laws/california/penalties-late-paycheck
