Defendant paid its workers’ flat rate bonuses on monthly, quarterly or yearly bases. When it paid a bonus, the bonus had to be retroactively included in computing the worker’s regular hourly wage, and hence also his overtime rate, for prior wage periods for which wages had already been paid. When defendant did so, it listed the additional pay for prior periods on a single line of the worker’s wage statement as “Overtime Pay-Override” without indicating the hours worked or the pay rate for the override amount. This manner of reporting the additional overtime pay for prior wage periods complied with Lab. Code 226(a)(9), because that section only requires separate listing of wage rates in effect during the period for which the wage statement is issued. Since the additional overtime pay was paid for periods before the current pay period, there was no wage rate in effect during the current pay period for that work and so none need be shown. Defendant also did not violate Lab. Code 226(a) by mailing terminated employees wage statements within a day or two after their termination. The section permits an employer to provide a wage statement on a semi-monthly basis rather than immediately upon termination and final payment of wages if that payment is by personal check or cash (or as hereby cash equivalent, a cashier’s check).
California Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 5 (Kim, J., sitting by assignment); May 30, 2018 (partial publication); 2018 Cal. App. LEXIS 504