by Larry Levy, Employee Relations Management, H.R. ALERT April 2011
I recently attended an employment law briefing and was shocked to learn the liability and penalties employers face when they do not provide accurate information or omit information on the employee’s paycheck stub. Like others I assumed this is the responsibility of your payroll vendor. Not so. It’s your responsibility. Further, there is an employee-friendly California law that “deputizes” (not my term) plaintiff’s attorneys to file claims against employers who violate federal and state wage and hour laws – the Private Attorney General’s Act (“P.A.G.A.”). This is considered a Wage & Hour law.
So, the following are the nine pieces of information that must be located on every employee’s paycheck stub (Remember, you must have all nine pieces of information on each pay stub):
- The name of the employee and the last four digits of his/her Social Security number. It is illegal to print the employee’s complete social security number after January 1, 2008.
- The name and address of the legal entity that is the employer. You must identify the actual legal name of the employer to facilitate an employee attempting to contact his/her actual employer.
- The gross wages earned.
- The total hours worked. Eliminate for your exempt employees, i.e., supervisors, managers, owner, etc.
- The number of piece-rate units and the rate per unit (if paid by the piece rate). Remember you must have employees complete a time card even if they are compensated on a piece-rate basis.
- All deductions authorized by the employee. The individual deductions and the amount deducted from the paycheck need to be itemized.
- The net wages earned.
- Inclusive dates of the payroll period. Note the actual days worked.
- All applicable hourly rates and the number of hours worked in each rate, i.e., 80 hours of work at his/her regular rate of pay of $25.00 per hour and 5 hours of work subject to the overtime rate of $37.50 per hour, etc.
Please do not depend upon your payroll service to provide this information.
Providing information relative to an employee’s accrued paid vacation and sick leave is discretionary.
Yes, everything we are discussing is in section 226 of the California Labor Code.
I am sure most of you are aware of this information but it does not hurt to double-check the information.
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