California Final Paycheck Law: When It Is Due If You Are Fired or Quit, What It Must Include, and the Waiting-Time Penalty

Section 201 says wages earned and unpaid at the time of discharge “are due and payable immediately.”¹ The Labor Commissioner’s Office, which enforces the Labor Code through its Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE), states the same rule: a discharged employee “must be paid all of his or her wages, including accrued vacation, immediately at the time of termination.”⁵

The statute has one exception, for seasonal layoffs in curing, canning or drying perishable fruit, fish or vegetables, where payment counts as immediate if it is made within the reasonable time needed to compute the wages and no later than 72 hours. An employee who asks for the pay by mail and gives an address must be mailed the pay¹.

Place of payment is a separate rule, Labor Code section 208: a terminated or laid-off employee is paid at the place of termination, and an employee who quits without notice and does not ask for mailing is paid at the employer’s office in the county where the work was done⁵.

Section 202 sets two timings. Wages are due within 72 hours after quitting, unless the employee “has given 72 hours previous notice,” in which case they are due at the time of quitting². The employee who quits without that notice can ask for the final pay by mail and designate an address; the mailing date counts as the payment date². The section applies to employees without a written contract for a definite period².

The 72 hours are the only notice period that changes a pay deadline. Nothing in section 202 requires an employee to give notice; how that fits with at-will employment, and what the law says when an employer sends a resigning employee home early, is on resignation letter and two weeks’ notice in California.

• All earned wages. The DLSE’s list for each situation is “all of his or her wages,” and for a discharge or a quit without notice it adds “including accrued vacation”⁵.
• Vested vacation. Labor Code section 227.3 says that where a contract or policy gives paid vacation and the employee is fired or leaves before using vested vacation, the employee “must be paid for that time” at the final rate, and a policy “shall not provide for forfeiture of vested vacation time upon termination.” A union agreement can set different terms⁴.
• Commissions. Earned commissions are due on the termination date for a discharge or a quit with notice, and within 72 hours for a quit without notice; commissions waiting on a condition such as a customer’s payment are due right after the condition is met⁵.
• Accrued sick leave: only if the employer’s policy pays it out. See the callout below.
• Severance: not required. The DLSE says there is “no legal requirement under California law that employers provide severance pay to an employee upon termination of employment.” Severance under a plan governed by the federal ERISA statute falls under federal law⁶. The severance rules that do apply are on severance agreements.

Sources disagree The DLSE’s Final Pay sheet, last revised in January 2011, says “there is no requirement under California law that an employer pay accrued sick leave upon termination.”⁶ That sheet predates California’s paid sick leave law. The Labor Commissioner’s current paid sick leave FAQ, updated December 31, 2025, says an employer is not required to pay out accrued sick leave unless the employer’s policy provides for a payout⁷. The two pages are consistent with each other. The newer page is the current statement of the sick leave rule; the 2011 sheet is the DLSE’s only Final Pay document and its age is the reason to read it with the newer FAQ.

On deductions, the DLSE’s paydays page says wage statements must list all deductions and that a direct-deposit authorization ends on quitting or discharge unless the employee voluntarily authorized it and the employer follows Labor Code section 213(d)⁵. The DLSE page does not give a complete list of lawful deductions from a final check.

If an employer willfully fails to pay the final wages on time, section 203 continues the wage “at the same daily rate” from the due date until the wages are paid or the worker sues, for no more than 30 days³. The DLSE describes the amount as “the employee’s daily rate of pay for each day the wages remain unpaid,” to a maximum of 30 calendar days⁵. Its Final Pay sheet describes the calculation as the daily wage rate multiplied by 30 days⁶.

Two limits in the statute: no penalty accrues for a period in which the worker hides to avoid payment, or refuses to accept a full tender of the wages plus the penalty accrued so far³. A suit for the penalty may be filed any time before the statute of limitations on the underlying wages runs out³.

The DLSE also names a defense. An employer can avoid the penalty by showing a good-faith dispute, a defense “based in law or fact” which, if successful, would preclude any recovery. Even then the employer must pay, without requiring a release, whatever wages are not in dispute (Labor Code section 206); the DLSE says a failure to do so defeats the good-faith defense⁶.

A worked example

Assumptions, chosen only to show the arithmetic: an employee paid $25 an hour for 8 hours a day, so the daily rate is $25 x 8 = $200. The employee is fired on a Friday and the final check is not handed over.

Those amounts come on top of the unpaid wages themselves. For a quit without notice on a Monday, the due date is 72 hours later, which is Thursday; the penalty days are counted from that due date²³. The example is arithmetic from the statute’s wording, not a prediction of what the Labor Commissioner or a court would award in any case; the good-faith defense above can change the result.

The Labor Commissioner’s Office takes wage claims online, by email, by mail or in person, and its claim forms and instructions can be downloaded in several languages⁹. The page lists limitation periods by type of claim, among them three years for minimum wage, overtime, unpaid rest or meal breaks, sick leave, illegal deductions and unpaid reimbursements, and four years for a written contract⁹.

A written request is not a step the Labor Code requires before a claim. The note below is a format some people use to put the request and the date in writing, not a form any law requires.

[Your name]
[Your address]
[Date]

[Employer name]
[Attention: payroll or owner]
[Employer address]

Re: Final wages for employment ending [last day of work]

My employment ended on [date] by [termination / resignation].
Under California Labor Code sections 201 and 202, my final wages
were due on [date]. As of today I have not received [the final
paycheck / the following amounts: accrued vacation of [hours] at
[rate], commissions of [amount], other: ____].

Please send the unpaid wages to the address above by [date].
Labor Code section 203 provides for continuing wages, up to 30
days, when final wages are not paid on time.

[Your name]