The 2013 Amendment to the Wage-Statement Statute: A Dog With Bark Worse Than Bite?

Labor Code Section 226 makes California employers liable for penalties if they issue inadequate wage statements that cause ‘injury.” Courts generally have denied penalty claims where hypertechnical violations did not cause real harm. Unsatisfied with this result, employee advocates lobbied for a 2012 amendment. Senate Bill 1255, effective January 1, 2013, amends Section 226(e) to deem “injury” to occur when the wage statement is imperfect and an employee can’t quickly use the statement to derive such items as the wage rates and number of hours worked.

When statutes get amended, it’s often a big deal. What about this amendment? Not so much.

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