The state violates its own deadlines with wage theft cases.

By law the individual wage claims workers file with the Labor Commissioner’s Office are supposed to reach a hearing in 120 days. Then the office gets 15 days to decide whether or not the worker is owed money and how much.

That can become a court judgment allowing the worker to claim the money. 

While the vast majority of cases settle before the hearing, other workers have faced long delays just to get a hearing before the Labor Commissioner’s Office. The average case filed last year that actually got a decision took double the time allowed by law. Thousands of cases filed in 2021 remain pending.

This chart measures the time between a worker filing a claim and the Labor Commissioner’s Office decision. CalMatters obtained data on these claims through a public records request.