Zaller Law Group, 999 N. Pacific Coast Highway, Suite 525, El Segundo, CA (2026)

10/12/2026

California employers: 2027 is bringing another round of important employment law changes.
Join the attorneys of Zaller Law Group for our New Laws and PAGA Update for 2027 Masterclass, with insights from our sponsors at Harri, as we break down the new California employment laws taking effect next year and the latest developments under PAGA.

We’ll also discuss how the 2024 PAGA reforms are playing out in practice, recent court decisions, opportunities to cure violations and reduce penalties, and practical steps employers can take now to prepare for January 1.

From handbook and policy updates to training, notices, and payroll practices, this one-hour session will give HR professionals, in-house counsel, business owners, and managers a clear compliance roadmap for 2027.

📅 Thursday, October 15
🕙 10:00 AM PT

Register today to get your organization ready for 2027: https://ow.ly/riqC50ZWX0f

10/09/2026

Software can make wage and hour compliance much easier—but it can also create liability when the wrong setting gets overlooked.

For California employers, something as simple as a system update, a change in payroll providers, or a single setting being toggled incorrectly can affect compliance across one or multiple locations.

And just because your system was configured correctly when it was implemented doesn’t mean it has stayed that way.

Regularly auditing your software settings and payroll records can help catch small issues before they become much bigger wage and hour problems.

10/08/2026

The 2024 PAGA reforms were supposed to slow things down. Instead, 2025 was the largest year yet for PAGA filings with the LWDA.

The reform didn't reduce enforcement. It changed how these cases are defended. The question used to be whether a violation happened. Now it's whether the employer can prove it took all reasonable steps to comply.

That matters, because the timing is everything. Employers that can show reasonable steps before a PAGA notice arrives may cap penalties at 15%. Employers scrambling after the notice face far more exposure.

Swipe through for 12 things California employers should be doing now: on audits, termination documentation, HR, and why visible ownership is still the best litigation prevention there is.

Which of these does your company have documented today?

10/07/2026

The 2024 PAGA reforms gave California employers a significant opportunity to reduce potential penalties—but only if they can show they’ve taken “reasonable steps” to comply with the Labor Code.

So what actually qualifies as reasonable steps?

The law identifies four key pillars employers should have in place. And checking the boxes isn’t enough—how you implement and document those steps can be just as important.

For California employers looking to strengthen their PAGA defenses, these four areas are a critical place to start.

10/07/2026

January 1, 2027 is 12 weeks away. Are your policies, pay practices, and PAGA defenses ready?
California is bringing another round of employment law changes next year. PAGA continues to evolve too: two years after the 2024 reforms, courts are now showing how the cure provisions and the 15% and 30% penalty caps work in practice.

On Thursday, October 15 at 10:00 AM PT, the attorneys of Zaller Law Group will cover:

▪️ The new California employment laws taking effect January 1
▪️ How the 2024 PAGA reforms are playing out, and recent court decisions
▪️ Opportunities to cure violations and reduce penalties
▪️ Practical updates to handbooks, policies, training, notices, and payroll practices

It's a one-hour session for HR professionals, in-house counsel, business owners, and managers who want a clear compliance roadmap for 2027. Thank you to our sponsors at Harri for their support and insights.

Registration link: https://ow.ly/X1Fm50ZVBlJ

10/05/2026

The 2024 PAGA reform was supposed to slow things down.

PAGA notices are running at roughly 849 per month. That puts 2026 on pace to be the biggest filing year since the statute took effect.

A few more numbers from our settlement tracking:
→ $1.3 billion in PAGA and class settlements in the first half of 2026
→ About half resolved for under $500,000
→ 44% involved employers with fewer than 200 employees
→ Roughly two years, on average, from notice to settlement

This is not a Fortune 500 problem. It's a small and mid-sized employer problem.

So what changes the math? At the BHBA program this month, I closed with the two-part approach I discuss with most employers (with the caveat that it isn't right for every business):

1. An arbitration agreement with a class action waiver. After Viking River Cruises (2022) and Adolph v. Uber (2023), it can't waive PAGA, but it eliminates the four-year class period, narrows the fight to PAGA's one-year period, and sends the employee's individual claim to arbitration.

2. A documented reasonable-steps file. Reasonable steps taken before a notice cap penalties at 15%; steps within 60 days after cap them at 30%. Neither cap is automatic. Both are proven with documents. An audit nobody wrote down didn't happen.

One-year period instead of four. An employee who has to prove their own injury first. A 15% cap on what survives. That is a very different case than the one that was filed.

All five takeaways from the program, including what the first 60 days after a PAGA notice should look like: https://ow.ly/L25b50ZUFMY

The settlement data comes from Scaled Comp, which I co-founded. Zaller Law Group uses it as a tool in our litigation and audit work.

10/01/2026

Most wage and hour lawsuits I defend didn't start with a wage complaint.

They started with a termination.

A departing employee sees a lawyer about one grievance: how they were let go, a final paycheck that showed up late, something a manager said on the way out. They leave that office with a PAGA notice being drafted on behalf of the entire workforce.

The termination was the trigger. The wage and hour claims were what the lawyer found when they looked.

I walked through this at the Beverly Hills Bar Association earlier this month. The mechanics where I see California employers get tripped up:

→ Calling a for-cause termination a "layoff" to be kind. When the real reason comes out in litigation, that kindness becomes pretext evidence.

→ Skipping the red-flag review. Under SB 497, an adverse action within 90 days of certain protected activity is presumed retaliatory. If a red flag exists, document why the decision is independent of it, and who made it.

→ Inconsistent reasons. The change-of-relationship notice, the termination letter, the EDD response, and eventual deposition testimony all need to say the same thing.

→ The final paycheck. An existing direct deposit authorization isn't enough for final wages; get a fresh written authorization. Waiting time penalties under Labor Code § 203 run up to 30 days of pay. At $200 a day, that's $4,000 per employee for a check that was simply late.

The employee may not agree with the decision. But they shouldn't leave feeling that the only way to be heard is to call a lawyer.

The full Friday's Five from the BHBA program, including the pre-termination checklist and severance timing for employees 40+: https://ow.ly/B2gz50ZTlmB

09/30/2026

Most PAGA cases never see a trial.

They end in a negotiated settlement — and that settlement is far more structured than most executives expect.

If a proposed PAGA settlement crosses your desk, here are the five things to understand before you evaluate it:

1️⃣ Attorneys' fees come off the top. Plaintiffs' counsel typically requests about one-third of the gross fund — and a judge must independently find that fee reasonable.

2️⃣ You may get to pick where unclaimed money goes. Checks that never get cashed can be directed to a nonprofit (called "cy pres") — and the recipient is negotiated into the agreement. You can propose a charity your company supports.

3️⃣ Administration costs are a real line item. A third-party administrator handles notices, checks, taxes, and questions — often several thousand dollars to $25,000+, all paid from the fund.

4️⃣ The named plaintiff gets an enhancement payment, which is also paid out of the fund. Usually $5,000 on top of their regular share. Courts scrutinize these and have reduced excessive requests.

5️⃣ You can't settle privately. The court must approve the deal, the LWDA gets to review and object.

The takeaway: employers aren't passive bystanders in this process.

The fee, the enhancement, the administrator, the charity — these are all negotiated terms. Understanding the structure is what lets you evaluate a proposed deal with clear eyes instead of just reacting to the headline number.

I walk through each of these in more detail in my post on the California Employment Law Report here: https://ow.ly/18Pi50ZThYO

09/25/2026

Last call. Entries for the 5th Annual Zaller Law Group "Sign or Veto" Contest close tonight at midnight.

Governor Newsom has five days left to act on every employment bill on his desk, and this is the final signing period of his term. Whatever gets signed is the 2027 compliance agenda. Whatever gets vetoed goes back to square one with a new governor.

So — sign or veto?

→ AB 2495: up to $10,000 per employee for immigration-related conduct toward workers
→ SB 947: the "No Robo Bosses Act," back after last year's veto
→ AB 2721: hotels required to disclose ICE and CBP reservations
→ AB 1640: the Restaurant Reservation Anti-Piracy Act
→ SB 1149: bereavement leave for a "designated person"

Plus a few non-employment curveballs.

If you have watched this Governor for the last seven years, you have an opinion on every one of these. Tonight is your last chance to put it on the record.

On the line: a Zaller Law Group Yeti cooler backpack for the champion, ZLG swag for 2nd and 3rd, and a year of bragging rights for everyone who calls it right.

Ties go to the earliest entry. Picks take about five minutes. Winners announced after the Governor's September 30 deadline.

Register your picks before midnight tonight: https://ow.ly/KJEa50ZRySk

Need a refresher on the bills? The full breakdown is here: https://ow.ly/m3tH50ZRySl

09/24/2026

In 2024, California gave employers a way to shrink PAGA penalties.

If you can show you took "reasonable steps" to follow wage-and-hour law before a claim came in, the penalties can be cut to 15% of what they'd otherwise be. Fix things quickly after you get notice, and they can be cut to 30%.

That's a big discount. So how often is it actually being used?

We looked at 652 California PAGA and wage-and-hour settlements from June, July, and August of this year.

The "reasonable steps" discount came up in 20 of them. About 3%.

And in most of those 20, it was only mentioned — often by the plaintiff's lawyer, saying it didn't apply. In just five cases was the discount actually used to bring the settlement number down.

Here's what those cases looked like.

One employer settled in July for $130,500. Its lawyers started with roughly $144,700 in potential PAGA penalties, applied the 15% discount, and then negotiated further from there. The PAGA portion of that settlement ended up at $5,000.

Another employer — a steel fabricator — settled in August for $287,500. It had fixed its meal-break timekeeping in 2025 and its lawyers raised the discount. The court papers even show what the discount would have produced: about $52,215 in PAGA exposure. But the final settlement math didn't use it. It treated the discount as one more argument and landed on a higher number.

Same law. Two very different results.

The difference wasn't the law. It was whether the employer had a compliance record built before the claim arrived — and whether it was strong enough to be the starting point instead of a talking point.

If you're a California employer counting on this discount, the takeaway is uncomfortable: nobody is handing it out. You have to build the record first.

Two caveats: we have court filings for only about half of these cases, and some are older matters filed before the 2024 law took effect.

Full breakdown of all five August settlements, including the caveats on method: https://ow.ly/Yz2150ZRcxE

Disclosure: the settlement data comes from Scaled Comp, which I co-founded. Zaller Law Group uses it as a tool in our litigation and audit work.

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