You were paid. But you were paid late.
Getting your wages does not necessarily settle whether additional money is owed for a late final paycheck.
Your wages and a waiting-time penalty are different.
California’s waiting-time penalty may apply to a willful failure to pay final wages on time. It is generally based on daily pay for the qualifying delay, capped at 30 days. Payment stops further accrual; it does not necessarily erase a penalty already accrued. Good-faith disputes and other eligibility requirements matter. Read the state’s waiting-time penalty guidance.
Get the dates in order.
Start with how your job ended: you quit or you were let go. Then note when you were actually paid and how it happened. A regular payroll date and a final-pay deadline are not necessarily the same.
If you have a pay stub, deposit record, envelope, or message about the payment, keep it. Do not change your account to fit an example online. If you remember only an approximate date, identify it as approximate.
The example is not your claim amount.
Our homepage illustrates potential penalties at an assumed hourly rate and workday. It does not predict your result. A review considers your records, the applicable deadline, the employer’s response, and whether the legal requirements are met. Any legal fee or agreed expense is addressed in the written agreement.
Choose how you want to start.
You can read the Labor Commissioner’s wage-claim filing instructions and consider the state process yourself. You can also ask CheckLate for a free review. No documents are needed to start that review, and you do not have to proceed.
If your case is accepted and you sign, your lawyer pursues the claim under the agreed scope. You remain the person who decides whether to accept a settlement offer.
General information, not a decision about your claim. Exceptions and deadlines can depend on the facts. Sending a CheckLate inquiry does not file a legal claim or stop a deadline.