Wage Statements in California

Every employer in California must semimonthly or at the time of each payment of wages furnish each of its employees an itemized statement in writing showing: (1) gross wages earned; (2) total hours worked for each employee whose compensation is based on an hourly wage; (3) all deductions, provided that all deductions made on written orders of the employee may be aggregated and shown as one item; (4) net wages earned; (5) the inclusive dates of the period for which the employee is being paid; (6) the name of the employee and the employee's Social Security number; and (7) the name and address of the legal entity that is the employer.

The statement must be in the form of a detachable part of the check, draft or voucher paying the employee's wages or a separate document when wages are paid by personal check or cash.

Effective January 1, 2007, an employer is in compliance with state law if overtime hours worked in a current pay period are itemized as corrections on the pay stub for the next regular pay period. The pay stub corrections must reflect the dates of the pay period that they refer to.

Effective January 1, 2008, employers are required to display no more than the last four digits of an employee's Social Security number or an existing employee identification number on the employee's wage statement.