California PAGA exposure
Calculate your California PAGA exposure in 60 seconds
Enter your headcount, hours, and timekeeping method. Get an estimated penalty range with citations to the relevant California Labor Code sections.
- §§ 2698-2699.5
- § 226
- § 510
- Cal. Labor Code
- 01
You don't know whether your current timekeeping (paper, spreadsheet, basic punch clock) would survive a PAGA demand
- 02
Your insurance broker mentioned PAGA on your last EPL renewal but you don't know your real number
- 03
An employment attorney consultation runs $1,500–$3,000 just to give you a starting exposure figure
Know your PAGA exposure range in under a minute, with citations to the California Labor Code sections that drive your number.
Calculations apply the AB 2288 reformed PAGA penalty structure ($100/employee/pay period default; $50 with reasonable-steps defense; $15 if cured; $200 only on prior finding or willful conduct) stacked with underlying Labor Code violations, anchored on the published statutory penalty structure and publicly available LWDA filings.
Know your PAGA exposure range in under a minute, with citations to the California Labor Code sections that drive your number.
Calculations apply the AB 2288 reformed PAGA penalty structure ($100/employee/pay period default; $50 with reasonable-steps defense; $15 if cured; $200 only on prior finding or willful conduct) stacked with underlying Labor Code violations, anchored on the published statutory penalty structure and publicly available LWDA filings.
Enter your operation. Get a defensible range.
Inputs are processed server-side. We never store more than what you enter — and only release the PDF once you ask.
PAGA notices hit a record 10,098 in 2025 (per LWDA filings dashboard). If a demand letter arrives, the LWDA cure window is 33 days under § 2699.3 — your response timeline depends on your attorney, and the first 48 hours matter.
How the calculator gets to your number.
AGA penalties stack. The Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act (§§ 2698-2699.5, as reformed by AB 2288 / SB 92 effective July 1, 2024) imposes a default $100 per employee per pay period, reduced to $50/PPwhen the employer has taken “reasonable steps” pre-notice, or $15/PP when the violation is cured after LWDA notice. The elevated $200 per employee per pay period rate now applies only on a prior 5-year finding or willful/malicious conduct — so what looks like a small wage-statement error multiplied by 26 pay periods and a 20-person crew can still move from hundreds into hundreds of thousands of dollars quickly.
We stack three Labor Code sources: §§ 2698-2699.5 (the PAGA framework itself, post-AB-2288 reform), § 226 (wage-statement requirements, capped at $4,000/employee per statute), and § 510 (overtime, when average hours/week exceed 40). On top of those, we apply a court-defensibility risk multiplier ranging from 0.85× for biometric records (lowest risk) to 1.6× for paper timesheets (highest risk), and we report a ±30% range around the midpoint to honor genuine uncertainty in violation-rate assumptions.
We use employer-defensive assumptions throughout — not plaintiff worst-case math. The number you see is closer to what your attorney would quote than what a plaintiff firm would assert in a demand letter. The methodology lives in plain text at /llms.txt so it's auditable.
PAGA framework
Default $100/employee/pay period (AB 2288 reformed). Reduced to $50 with reasonable-steps defense, $15 if cured post-notice. $200/PP only on prior finding or willful conduct. 65% LWDA / 35% aggrieved employees.
Wage statement
$50 initial / $100 subsequent per employee per pay period. Capped at $4,000/employee.
Overtime
1.5× hours 8–12/day or over 40/week; 2× hours over 12/day. Applied when hours/week > 40.
