RULES REGARDING ITEMIZED WAGE STATEMENTS ARE CLARIFIED

Certain provisions of the California Labor Code impose strict requirements for the timely payment of wages. Other provisions of the Labor Code require that each employee be furnished an itemized wage statement at the time of each wage payment.

In addition to other information, the itemized wage statement must show the total hours worked by the employee. However, when an employee works overtime in one payroll period, the wage payment statute allows the employer to pay for the overtime on the payday for the following payroll period.

A recent amendment to the Labor Code clarifies that an employer is in compliance with itemized wage statement requirements if overtime hours worked in one pay period are itemized as "corrections" on the paystub for the next regular pay period. However, the amendment also requires that "[a]ny corrections set out in a subsequently issued paystub shall state the inclusive dates of the pay period for which the employer is correcting its initial report of hours worked."