Thousands of PAGA notices are filed annually in California over labor code violations as minor as typos on a paystub.  A newly updated study authored by the former California Department of Industrial Relations Director, Christine Baker and former Cal/OSHA Chief, Len Welsh finds that California’s Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) — a California law that privatized justice by allowing employees to file suit against their employer for any minor or accidental infraction of California’s labor code — has failed employees, employers, and the State.

This study was first published in March 2021. The study was updated by Welsh and Baker in November 2021 to include more than 2,500 additional cases obtained from a Public Records Act request. The data provided further evidence of the many ways in which PAGA’s promotion of court action over agency action to remedy worker wage and hour claims has failed. Everyone loses when cases are resolved by court cases instead of by agency determination.

  1. Workers get less and employers pay more.
  2. PAGA lawsuits take over a half-year longer to resolve than PAGA claims decided by LWDA.
  3. Lawyers are gouging the system to the detriment of worker recoveries.

To read the full updated study, click here.

The CABIA Foundation has also developed an interactive map to detail the cases, outcomes, and costs of PAGA cases and LWDA-settled cases by county in California.