Beyond wrongful termination: 6 ways your California employer may be breaking the law

If someone of a different sex, race, or ethnicity earns more than you for substantially similar work, California’s Equal Pay Act generally requires the employer to justify every dollar of the gap, and many can’t. Titles don’t decide the question; the work does. “Wages” now generally includes bonuses, stock, and benefits, not just salary, and workers typically have three years from the last short paycheck to file, with recovery reaching back as far as six. You’re also generally free to ask coworkers what they make and to request the pay scale for your own job, and your employer may not punish you for either. A successful claim can recover the difference plus an equal amount as liquidated damages, so a $10,000 gap may be a $20,000 claim before interest and fees. We walk through the details, including what counts as “substantially similar,” in our guide to the California Equal Pay Act. If the short version already sounds familiar, our equal pay lawyers may be able to review your situation in a free case review.

If you work more than five hours in a day, California generally entitles you to a 30-minute, unpaid, uninterrupted meal break that starts before the end of your fifth hour, and a second one if you work past ten. You also generally get a paid 10-minute rest break for every four hours or major fraction of one, which in most cases means one rest break on a shift of three and a half hours or more, two on a shift over six, and three past ten. The employer has to actually relieve you of duty. A lunch eaten at the register while helping customers generally doesn’t qualify as a meal break, and a rest break spent on hold with a vendor usually isn’t a rest break either.

Here’s what a missed, late, interrupted, or shortened break is typically worth: one extra hour of pay at your regular rate for the meal violation, and another hour for the rest violation, for each day it happens. That regular rate generally includes shift differentials and nondiscretionary bonuses, not just your base wage. Lose one lunch a day for a year and you may be looking at roughly 250 hours of pay. If breaks are a running joke where you work, a legal professional can help you figure out what you may be owed.

California generally requires time and a half after eight hours in a day or forty in a week, and double time after twelve in a day. The violations that come up most often aren’t about arithmetic. They’re about hours that never make it onto the timesheet. Logging in before you clock in. Closing out after you clock out. Answering a manager’s texts at night. Driving between job sites. “Rounding” that somehow always rounds down. In most cases, if the employer knows or should know you’re working, it has to pay for that time.

Employers often use two labels to get around this. The first is “salaried.” A salary does not, by itself, make you exempt from overtime. In 2026 the salary generally has to be at least $70,304 a year, and your actual duties have to be primarily managerial, administrative, or professional in the legal sense. An “assistant manager” who spends the shift stocking shelves may well be owed overtime. The second is “independent contractor.” Under California’s ABC test you are generally an employee unless the company can show you’re free from its control, doing work outside its usual business, and running your own independent trade. A 1099 form doesn’t settle that. If either label sounds like your job, a free case review can usually tell you fairly quickly whether you may have been misclassified.

If you need something to do your job and you’re the one paying for it, your employer generally owes you the money back. Labor Code section 2802 requires employers to reimburse necessary expenses you take on because of your work. A personal cell phone you use for work calls or apps: in most cases a reasonable share of the bill, even if your plan is unlimited. Mileage when you drive your own car between work locations or out to customers: the IRS rate, 76 cents a mile since July 1, 2026, is the usual yardstick. Tools and equipment the job requires. Uniforms with a logo or a distinctive look, and often the cost of cleaning them if they need special care. Home internet if you work remotely at the company’s request.

This right generally can’t be signed away. An agreement saying you’ll cover your own costs is typically unenforceable. Unpaid reimbursements usually carry interest, and an employer that loses may have to pay your attorney’s fees. If you’ve been covering a phone bill or gas for a few years, the total is often larger than you’d guess, and a legal professional can help you add it up.

A few violations hide in plain sight. Start with tips: they’re generally yours. A manager, owner, or supervisor may not take any part of a tip, and tips can’t be used to pay you less than minimum wage. Pooling tips among the people who actually serve the customer is generally allowed; a “house cut” usually is not. Then final pay, which has a deadline. If you’re fired, everything you’re owed, unused vacation included, is generally due the same day. If you quit with at least 72 hours’ notice it’s due on your last day; quit without notice and it’s due within 72 hours. For each day it’s late, up to 30, the employer may owe you a full day’s wages as a penalty. And look at your pay stub. It generally has to show gross and net wages, hours worked, hourly rates, deductions, the pay period, your name, and the employer’s legal name and address. A stub missing those items may be a violation with its own penalties, and it often points to a larger problem underneath. Our team may be able to review your pay records with you.

In many cases, yes. California’s Private Attorneys General Act, which everyone calls PAGA, lets one employee step into the state’s shoes and recover civil penalties for Labor Code violations committed against the whole workforce, not just that one person. Penalties generally run per employee, per pay period. That’s why a break violation worth an hour of pay to you can become a six- or seven-figure claim when it’s happening to 200 coworkers every week. Thirty-five percent of the penalties generally go to the affected employees and the rest to the state.

PAGA was tightened in 2024, so a few things to know. You generally must have personally experienced each violation you sue over, and within the past year. Employers that clean up their practices quickly may be able to reduce the penalties substantially. And the process typically starts with a written notice to the state’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency, not a lawsuit, so the one-year clock matters.

Speaking up is protected. Firing, demoting, or otherwise punishing an employee for complaining about pay, filing a wage claim, sending a PAGA notice, or helping a coworker’s claim is generally illegal, and it may create a separate retaliation claim with its own damages. If fear of what comes next is what’s stopping you, that is worth raising with a legal professional first, and a free case review is a good place to do it.

You don’t have to be fired to have a case. If any of these six sounds like your workplace, the California employment lawyers at Wilshire Law Firm may be able to help you understand your rights and pursue what you’re owed through a free case review with a legal professional, available 24/7, with no fees unless you get paid.

This article is a general overview, not legal advice. The rules change, and every situation is different. Contact Wilshire Law Firm to talk through yours.