Identity Theft Protection Added to Labor Code § 226

Labor Code § 226(a) provides that:

Every employer shall, semimonthly or at the time of each payment of wages, furnish each of his or her employees, either as a detachable part of the check, draft, or voucher paying the employee's wages, or separately when wages are paid by personal check or cash, an accurate itemized statement in writing showing (1) gross wages earned, (2) total hours worked by the employee, except for any employee whose compensation is solely based on a salary and who is exempt from payment of overtime under subdivision (a) of Section 515 or any applicable order of the Industrial Welfare Commission, (3) the number of piece-rate units earned and any applicable piece rate if the employee is paid on a piece-rate basis, (4) all deductions, provided that all deductions made on written orders of the employee may be aggregated and shown as one item, (5) net wages earned, (6) the inclusive dates of the period for which the employee is paid, (7) the name of the employee and his or her social security number, except that by January 1, 2008, only the last four digits of his or her social security number or an existing employee identification number other than a social security number may be shown on the check, (8) the name and address of the legal entity that is the employer, and (9) all applicable hourly rates in effect during the pay period and the corresponding number of hours worked at each hourly rate by the employee.  The deductions made from payments of wages shall be recorded in ink or other indelible form, properly dated, showing the month, day, and year, and a copy of the statement or a record of the deductions shall be kept on file by the employer for at least three years at the place of employment or at a central location within the State of California.

The last part of (7) is newly enacted. This requirement -- that employers omit all but the last four digits of employees's social security number on their paystubs -- does not go into effect until 2008. By then, one would hope that every large employer in the state would know about it. The certainly will have plently of defense firm newsletters to warn them.

Should they choose to disregard the new identity theft protections, they could face penalties of up to $100 per employee, per pay period, to a maximum of $4,000 to each worker.

Comments

[Margie Mills]

Is there a penalty if an employer does not provide an itemized statement of earnings to the employee on the same date that wages are paid?

If so, what is the penalty?

thank you.

[Shawn Frisbey]

Does #7 mean that at this time, you can begin masking the ssn with only the last 4 showing, or that you cannot mask the ssn until 1/1/08?
Thanks

[Aman Ahluwalia]

What if an employer provides these itemized wage statements to the employee as part of their check and no employee has ever complained about wages earned or overtime paid, is an employer still liable for the harsh penalties if it unintentionally failed to keep the records for 3 years? Thanks.

[Beth Braun]

What is the responsibility of the employer to provide records of the commissions they are paying the employee. Do they need to provide itemized statements of what they are paying out. ie. names and amounts being paid commissions?
Thank you

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