California Labor Code section 226 requires detailed wage statements containing nine items of information, including "the name and address of the legal entity that is the employer," and "all applicable hourly rates in effect during the pay period and the corresponding number of hours worked at each hourly rate by the employee." Section 226 further provides that an employee must be able to "promptly and easily determine" these items of information "from the wage statement alone," which means that "a reasonable person would be able to readily ascertain the information without reference to other documents or information." With transparency as the putative goal of the wage statement requirement, courts have strictly applied section 226 even to employers who act in good faith. Penalties and class action exposure loom large in cases alleging section 226 violations.
Now, section 226 has been extended to interstate transportation workers who are based in California but do not perform the majority of their work in any one state. In Ward v. United Airlines, the Ninth Circuit rejected constitutional and federal law challenges to applying section 226 to pilots and flight attendants who spend most of their time working outside of California if they are "based" in California in that the employee performs at least some work in California and (quoting an earlier state Supreme Court decision) "California serves as the physical location where the worker presents himself or herself to begin work."
