A bill introduced in the California Assembly in February 2025 aims to strengthen enforcement of unpaid wage judgments against employers. Assembly Bill 485 (AB 485), introduced by Assemblymember Liz Ortega, would specifically target employers who operate under state-issued licenses or permits. Current Enforcement Mechanisms Under existing law, the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE)—led by…

In an effort to combat wage theft and improve enforcement in Santa Clara County and across California, State Senator Aisha Wahab (D-Hayward) introduced Senate Bill 261 (SB 261) in February 2025. Sponsored by the County of Santa Clara, the proposed legislation seeks to enhance legal mechanisms for workers seeking to recover unpaid wages and impose…

In February 2025, a bill introduced in the California Senate aims to strengthen enforcement against employers who fail to pay workers their legally owed wages. Senate Bill 355 (SB 355), authored by Senator Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Pasadena), would grant the California Labor Commissioner’s Office (LCO) the authority to suspend or revoke driver’s licenses and vehicle…

In February of 2025, California State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced SB 310, a bill aimed at improving workers’ access to justice when employers pay their wages late or not at all. Currently, workers typically file wage claims with the Labor Commissioner’s Office (LCO) or file Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) representative lawsuits. However,…

The Harvard-UCSF Report The Harvard Kennedy School and the University of California at San Francisco have issued a report that shows rampant wage violations occurring in California workplaces. A copy of the report can be downloaded here. Some highlights from the report: The report concludes that while California boasts some of the most progressive labor…

One of the common employer defenses we come across when representing employees in wage claims is the “independent contractor defense”. The argument goes, since the worker was only an independent contractor and was never an employee, the worker falls completely outside of the protections of the labor code and his claim must be dismissed. It…

Senate Bill 525 is a legislative measure that enhances the protections for healthcare workers, especially those who are on-call or on standby. This bill is designed to ensure that healthcare professionals are fairly compensated for the periods when they are required to be available to work, even if they are not actually called in to…