PAGA penalty calculator. The 2024 reform rules, one pay period at a time.

What changed in 2024

The Private Attorneys General Act lets an aggrieved employee recover civil penalties for Labor Code violations on behalf of the state and other employees. AB 2288 and SB 92, signed July 1, 2024, rewrote the penalty rules in Labor Code 2699. The amendments apply to civil actions brought on or after June 19, 2024, except those whose LWDA notice was filed before that date (2699(v)). This tool follows the statute as amended.

The penalty amounts

For a Labor Code provision with no civil penalty of its own, 2699(f) sets a default:

If the employees' regular pay period is weekly rather than biweekly or semimonthly, the penalty is cut in half (2699(o)).

The caps

Two caps reward compliance steps:

• 15 percent. If, before receiving the PAGA notice or a records request, the employer had taken all reasonable steps to comply with the provisions in the notice, the penalty is capped at 15 percent (2699(g)). Reasonable steps can include periodic payroll audits with action on the results, lawful written policies, supervisor training and corrective action.
• 30 percent. If the employer takes all reasonable steps within 60 days after receiving the notice to comply going forward, the cap is 30 percent (2699(h)).

Neither cap applies when the penalty is the $200 rate. A court may also award less than the maximum, or go past the caps, when doing otherwise would be unjust, arbitrary and oppressive, or confiscatory (2699(e)(2)).

The split

Recovered penalties go 65 percent to the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and 35 percent to the aggrieved employees (2699(m)).

How the tool computes

1. Penalty per period: the rate you choose, halved for weekly payroll.
2. Gross penalty: employees, times pay periods each, times the number of violations alleged, times the penalty per period.
3. Cap: 15 or 30 percent of the gross, if you choose one and the rate is not $200.
4. Split: 65 percent to the LWDA and 35 percent to the employees, with an even share per employee for scale.

A worked example

Sixty aggrieved employees, paid every two weeks, 26 pay periods each in the PAGA period, two Labor Code provisions violated at the $100 rate. The gross penalty is 60 times 26 times 2 times $100: $312,000. With no compliance steps shown, the LWDA's 65 percent is $202,800 and the employees' 35 percent is $109,200, about $1,820 each.

If the employer took all reasonable steps within 60 days of the notice, the 30 percent cap brings the penalty to $93,600: $60,840 to the LWDA and $32,760 to the employees, about $546 each. Paid weekly, every figure would be half.

Read it as an estimate

This is an estimate of the statutory penalty, the figure a court starts from. Courts can award less, and can reduce penalties when the same conduct caused several violations (2699(i)). An employer that meets the 15 or 30 percent conditions and cures a violation owes no penalty for it, and other employers that cure owe no more than $15 per employee per pay period (2699(j)). Many Labor Code sections carry their own civil penalty, which replaces the default. And penalties for late final wages under Labor Code 201 to 203 can't be collected on top of the penalty for the underlying unpaid wages.

The notice comes first

A PAGA case starts with written notice filed online with the LWDA, with a $75 filing fee, and sent to the employer by certified mail (Labor Code 2699.3). If the LWDA says it will not investigate, or gives no notice within 65 calendar days of the notice's postmark, the employee may sue. Aggrieved employees are those who suffered the violations within the one-year period in Code of Civil Procedure 340, so count pay periods inside it.

Related reading

The PAGA after the 2024 reform guide covers cure, early resolution and court approval. The wage and hour damages guide sits beside it, and the unpaid overtime calculator sizes the underlying wages. The glossary defines PAGA, the LWDA notice, waiting time penalties and meal and rest break premiums. PlaintiffStack's employment wage and penalty audit lays the exposure out for a person to review; see the employment practice page.