The California Labor & Workforce Development Agency investigates labor complaints, many made possible by the PAGA legislation.
correct any violations prior to litigation. “The unit reviews procedures and conducts conferences for small-employer cure proceedings, and it reviews cure notices by employers of any size that involve alleged wage statement violations,” says the agency. Plenty of employees sue their employer when they feel they are not being treated fairly. Hence, PAGA lawsuits have grown significantly, and the most common PAGA complaints are about meal and rest breaks, says Pungprakeati. “Unpaid time is another very common complaint, and there are several others that rank right up there,” adds Brown. ‘ A new version of ambulance chasers’ The PAGA process can be quite lucrative for certain law firms, says Pungprakeati. “The state now has a website that tracks all the PAGA filings [ cabia.org/research-data/ paga-summary/ ], and a pro-business alliance uses this information to organize the top 10 law firms that have filed more than 1,000 PAGA lawsuits. The only people benefiting from these lawsuits are the plaintiffs’ attorneys, the 10 top firms that are filing 10 suits a day, every day.” (Those top 10 firms currently listed on the Cabia website are all located in Southern California.) The average cost for one of these lawsuits runs about $1.118 million, says Vick. “So this is an incentive for attorneys that creates a new version of ambulance chasers.” In 2021, an attempt was made to repeal PAGA with a ballot initiative called the California Fair Play and Employer Accountability Act. Ultimately the initiative was withdrawn from the ballot after Gov. Gavin Newsom made a deal with business and labor groups to reform PAGA. Last year’s reform was an effort by the legislature to show that PAGA
What is PAGA ? The Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) became law in California in 2004. According to the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency (LWDA), the legislation “allows employees to assist the state in enforcing labor laws by suing their employers to recover civil penalties for Labor Code violations on behalf of the state.” The labor agency also states that PAGA was reformed in June 2024 to allow any current or former employee who has experienced each of the alleged Labor Code violations to file a PAGA lawsuit. Previous to that, a PAGA lawsuit could be filed by a current or former employee who experienced at least one of the alleged Labor Code violations. Filing a complaint against an employer through PAGA is a multi-layered process overseen by the Labor & Workforce Development Agency and subject to filing time limits and statutes of limitation. As many as 9,464 PAGA notices were filed in 2024, up 22% from 2023, according to the California Department of Industrial Relations. A PAGA lawsuit settlement can average more than $1 million, with lesser settlement amounts in cases resolved by the LWDA, which average nearly $790,000. Attorney fees often account for a large portion of the total settlement .— JSD
24 NorthBaybiz
August 2025
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