Employment4 min read
What PAGA's 2024 reform changed for plaintiff employment firms
AB 2288 and SB 92 narrowed who can bring PAGA claims, added cure windows and penalty caps, and raised the employees' share. What changed for plaintiff firms.
By The PlaintiffStack team
California's Private Attorneys General Act lets an employee recover civil penalties for Labor Code violations on behalf of the state and other employees. In July 2024 the Legislature rewrote large parts of it. Governor Newsom signed the reform, AB 2288 and SB 92, on July 1, 2024 (LWDA). Two years on, here is what changed and what it means for how a plaintiff firm runs a PAGA case.
This is general information, not legal advice. The statute is Labor Code 2698 through 2699.8, and the bills are AB 2288 and SB 92.
When the new rules apply
The reforms apply to PAGA notices filed on or after June 19, 2024. Notices filed before that date follow the old rules. The new cure procedures took effect on October 1, 2024, when the Labor and Workforce Development Agency set up a PAGA unit to run them (LWDA FAQ).
Standing is narrower
Under the old rule, an employee who suffered one violation could pursue penalties for others. Now, for notices filed on or after June 19, 2024, the employee must have personally experienced each Labor Code violation alleged (LWDA FAQ), within the one-year period before the notice (Faegre Drinker). Employees represented by certain nonprofit legal organizations are treated differently.
What it means for intake. Screening has to happen violation by violation, for this client, inside the right window. Dates of employment, pay stubs, time records and the schedule the client actually worked matter from the first call. Our guide to employment intake screening covers what to collect.
The notice has to do more
The LWDA notice goes in through the agency's online portal, with a copy to the employer by certified mail, and a $75 filing fee that can be waived for hardship. It must include facts supporting the claims, not just a restatement of the statute. The agency then has 65 days to say whether it will investigate; if it doesn't, the employee may file suit (LWDA FAQ).
What it means for drafting. A notice built from a chronology of what happened to this client, with the pay records behind it, is the notice the statute now asks for.
New clocks to track
The reform gave employers new ways to cure violations early, each with its own deadlines (LWDA FAQ):
| Who | What | When |
|---|---|---|
| Employers with fewer than 100 employees | Submit a cure proposal to the LWDA | Within 33 days of receiving the notice |
| The LWDA | Decide whether to hold a cure conference | Within 14 days |
| The parties | Hold the conference, if scheduled | Within 30 days of the scheduling notice |
| The employer | Complete the cure | Within 45 days after the conference |
| Any employer | Cure wage statement violations alone | Within 33 days of the notice's postmark |
| Employers, once suit is filed | Ask the court for an early evaluation conference | No later than the first court response |
| The court | Hold the early evaluation conference | Within 70 days of the court's order |
A cure is more than a promise. It generally means correcting the violation and paying the wages owed for the three years before the notice, with 7 percent interest, liquidated damages where the law requires them, and reasonable attorney's fees and costs (Faegre Drinker).
What it means for the calendar. Every one of these dates belongs on the case, with the rule beside it. A cure proposal that arrives on day 30 of a 33-day window changes what you do that week.
Penalties have new ceilings
The reform changed the money in several ways.
- Caps for employers that took steps. If the employer had taken all reasonable steps to comply before the notice, penalties are capped at 15 percent of what's sought. If it took them within 60 days after the notice, the cap is 30 percent (LWDA FAQ).
- The higher penalty is harder to reach. The $200 per-pay-period penalty now applies only where a court or agency found the employer's policy or practice unlawful in the prior five years, or where the employer acted maliciously, fraudulently or oppressively (Faegre Drinker).
- Smaller penalties for some violations. Isolated, nonrecurring violations are capped at $50 per employee per pay period, penalties are halved where the pay period is weekly, wage statement violations without injury are capped at $25, and some derivative penalties are barred (Faegre Drinker).
- Employees get more of what's recovered. The split moved from 75 percent to the LWDA and 25 percent to employees to 65 and 35 (LWDA FAQ).
- New remedies and limits. Courts may now order an employer to stop the unlawful conduct (LWDA FAQ), and may limit the scope of claims and evidence at trial to keep a case manageable (Faegre Drinker).
What it means for damages. The penalty model now has to be built per violation and per pay period, and the question that moves the number is often which cap applies. The answer turns on what the employer did and when, which means the evidence on compliance steps, from personnel records and discovery, is worth gathering early. Our PAGA penalty calculator works through the arithmetic, and the wage and hour damages guide covers the underlying claims.
Settlements
Courts must approve PAGA settlements, and the parties have to submit them to the LWDA at the same time (LWDA FAQ). With employees now taking 35 percent, run the settlement math on the new split before you present it to a client.
Where PlaintiffStack fits
PlaintiffStack's employment practice follows California rules. Case tools build the legal chronology (protected activity, adverse actions and the time between them), run a wage and penalty audit for back pay, penalties and pay anomalies, and draft the pre-litigation demand. Morning checks watch civil filing deadlines after a right-to-sue notice, tolling agreements about to end, and discovery coming due. Every fact an agent proposes cites the page it came from, and a person accepts it.
PAGA's own clocks aren't built in as checks today. Admins can add a PAGA phase, pages and fields for its dates in Customize, and track them on the case.
See the employment practice page and our longer guide to PAGA after the 2024 reform.