California Wage & Hour Compliance Issue Spotter

The problem

California wage-and-hour compliance is a minefield of overlapping IWC Wage Orders, local ordinances, and sector-specific wage floors. Relying on outdated summaries or generic checklists leads to massive PAGA exposure and statutory penalties.

What it does

• Identifies the governing IWC Wage Order based on industry and occupation to apply correct break and overtime rules.
• Calculates complex regular rate of pay by incorporating non-discretionary bonuses, commissions, and shift differentials.
• Spots locality-specific risks including municipal minimum wages, fair workweek/predictive scheduling, and hospitality ordinances.
• Analyzes worker classification under the ABC test and specific statutory exceptions for independent contractors and exempt status.
• Evaluates final pay timing, vested vacation payouts, and itemized wage statement compliance to flag waiting-time and section 226 penalties.

Frameworks & tools

California Labor Code, IWC Wage Orders, DLSE Enforcement Policies, PAGA (2024 reforms), FLSA, and 2026 California legislative updates.

Why this beats prompting it yourself

Generic LLMs often hallucinate California's unique "primarily engaged" quantitative exemption test or fail to distinguish between seventh-day overtime and day-of-rest rights. This skill uses a multi-gate architecture to verify physical work locations and industry overlays, ensuring you don't apply state-only rules to cities with higher local standards.

Use cases

• Audit payroll system configurations for systemic miscalculations of daily overtime or regular rate.
• Review independent contractor agreements against the ABC test and the Freelance Worker Protection Act.
• Prepare for PAGA remediation by identifying curable wage statement defects and standing issues.
• Assess compliance for specialized sectors like fast food, healthcare, or public works prevailing wage projects.

Known limitations

Does not provide formal legal advice or form attorney-client relationships. Requires physical work location data to resolve local overlays accurately.