The Nine Things Your Pay Stub Must Show — and What Each Missing One Costs

California is one of the few states that regulates the pay stub itself, and it does so with a checklist and a penalty schedule. Labor Code §226(a) requires nine items on every itemized wage statement: (1) gross wages earned; (2) total hours worked (for non-exempt employees); (3) piece-rate units and rates where applicable; (4) all deductions; (5) net wages; (6) the pay period’s start and end dates; (7) the employee’s name and the last four digits of their SSN or an employee ID; (8) the employer’s full legal name and address; and (9) all applicable hourly rates and the hours worked at each.

Pull your last stub and count. Missing hours? A staffing-agency stub showing a d/b/a instead of the legal entity? Overtime hours folded into a single line with no rate breakdown? Each is a violation.

The penalty schedule. For knowing and intentional violations that cause injury, §226(e) awards the greater of actual damages or $50 for the first pay period and $100 for each subsequent violation, up to $4,000, plus attorney’s fees and costs. “Injury” is defined generously — if you cannot promptly and easily determine your rates, hours, or the employer’s identity from the stub itself, injury is established.

Why item (8) matters more than it looks. Workers routinely lose wage cases at the starting line because they cannot name the correct legal employer — the restaurant’s sign says one thing, the paycheck says another, the corporate defendant is a third. The Legislature put the legal name and address on the stub precisely so a worker can sue the right entity.

Your records rights. §226(b)-(c) entitles you to inspect or copy your payroll records within 21 days of a written request; failure triggers a $750 penalty under §226(f) and injunctive relief plus fees under §226(h). This request letter is the cheapest discovery in employment law, and it works before any claim is filed.

Recordkeeping violations travel with wage violations — an employer sloppy on stubs is rarely clean on overtime. The stub audit is where every wage case should start, and the Labor Commissioner’s DLSE enforces all of it at no cost to the worker.

Every letter, form, and deadline referenced above is packaged in the free kits at JusticePrompt.com. No credit card, no upsell — the documents and the law, ready to use.

California is one of the few states that regulates the pay stub itself, and it does so with a checklist and a penalty schedule. Labor Code §226(a) requires nine items on every itemized wage statement: (1) gross wages earned; (2) total hours worked (for non-exempt employees); (3) piece-rate units and rates where applicable; (4) all deductions; (5) net wages; (6) the pay period’s start and end dates; (7) the employee’s name and the last four digits of their SSN or an employee ID; (8) the employer’s full legal name and address; and (9) all applicable hourly rates and the hours worked at each.

Pull your last stub and count. Missing hours? A staffing-agency stub showing a d/b/a instead of the legal entity? Overtime hours folded into a single line with no rate breakdown? Each is a violation.

The penalty schedule. For knowing and intentional violations that cause injury, §226(e) awards the greater of actual damages or $50 for the first pay period and $100 for each subsequent violation, up to $4,000, plus attorney’s fees and costs. “Injury” is defined generously — if you cannot promptly and easily determine your rates, hours, or the employer’s identity from the stub itself, injury is established.

Why item (8) matters more than it looks. Workers routinely lose wage cases at the starting line because they cannot name the correct legal employer — the restaurant’s sign says one thing, the paycheck says another, the corporate defendant is a third. The Legislature put the legal name and address on the stub precisely so a worker can sue the right entity.

Your records rights. §226(b)-(c) entitles you to inspect or copy your payroll records within 21 days of a written request; failure triggers a $750 penalty under §226(f) and injunctive relief plus fees under §226(h). This request letter is the cheapest discovery in employment law, and it works before any claim is filed.

Recordkeeping violations travel with wage violations — an employer sloppy on stubs is rarely clean on overtime. The stub audit is where every wage case should start, and the Labor Commissioner’s DLSE enforces all of it at no cost to the worker.

Every letter, form, and deadline referenced above is packaged in the free kits at JusticePrompt.com. No credit card, no upsell — the documents and the law, ready to use.

California is one of the few states that regulates the pay stub itself, and it does so with a checklist and a penalty schedule. Labor Code §226(a) requires nine items on every itemized wage statement: (1) gross wages earned; (2) total hours worked (for non-exempt employees); (3) piece-rate units and rates where applicable; (4) all deductions; (5) net wages; (6) the pay period’s start and end dates; (7) the employee’s name and the last four digits of their SSN or an employee ID; (8) the employer’s full legal name and address; and (9) all applicable hourly rates and the hours worked at each.

Pull your last stub and count. Missing hours? A staffing-agency stub showing a d/b/a instead of the legal entity? Overtime hours folded into a single line with no rate breakdown? Each is a violation.

The penalty schedule. For knowing and intentional violations that cause injury, §226(e) awards the greater of actual damages or $50 for the first pay period and $100 for each subsequent violation, up to $4,000, plus attorney’s fees and costs. “Injury” is defined generously — if you cannot promptly and easily determine your rates, hours, or the employer’s identity from the stub itself, injury is established.

Why item (8) matters more than it looks. Workers routinely lose wage cases at the starting line because they cannot name the correct legal employer — the restaurant’s sign says one thing, the paycheck says another, the corporate defendant is a third. The Legislature put the legal name and address on the stub precisely so a worker can sue the right entity.

Your records rights. §226(b)-(c) entitles you to inspect or copy your payroll records within 21 days of a written request; failure triggers a $750 penalty under §226(f) and injunctive relief plus fees under §226(h). This request letter is the cheapest discovery in employment law, and it works before any claim is filed.

Recordkeeping violations travel with wage violations — an employer sloppy on stubs is rarely clean on overtime. The stub audit is where every wage case should start, and the Labor Commissioner’s DLSE enforces all of it at no cost to the worker.

Every letter, form, and deadline referenced above is packaged in the free kits at JusticePrompt.com. No credit card, no upsell — the documents and the law, ready to use.

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