California Wage & Hour Claim Calculator

A powerful feature of wage law is that it often doubles the recovery: under the FLSA, unpaid wages can be awarded together with an equal amount in liquidated damages, and many states add their own penalties for willful violations. Prevailing employees are also typically entitled to attorney fees, so a California wage claim can be worth substantially more than the raw unpaid wages alone.

The FLSA generally allows 2 years to recover back wages, extended to 3 years for willful violations. California's own wage statute of limitations is about 3 years, in line with the national average of 3.7 years, and the longer applicable period usually controls — so the sooner you act, the more back pay you can recover.

You can pursue unpaid wages in California even while still employed — retaliation for asserting wage rights is illegal under both federal and state law. Claims can go through your state labor agency, the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, or a private attorney, and many wage cases proceed as collective or class actions when one policy affected multiple workers.