PAGA Notices Hit 10,000 a Year: 5 Checks for California Grocery Owners This Week

It is 6 p.m. on a Friday. Two registers are backed up, the deli is one person short, and the cashier who was supposed to take her meal break at 4:30 is still on the floor. Nobody is upset. Nobody writes anything down. That ordinary Friday, repeated week after week, is where most California wage-and-hour claims against grocery stores begin.

For an Owner/CEO running a store with 25 to 200 employees, the issues that surface first are rarely dramatic. They are pay stubs, meal and rest breaks, and overtime. All three sit in records you already have, which means you get to look before anyone else does. If you do one thing today, pull one hourly employee's latest pay stub and run the 5-point checklist below. That single page tells you more about where you stand than any seminar.

The numbers, without the drama

Here is the number behind all of this. In 2025, 10,098 PAGA notices were filed with California's Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA), the highest annual total on record. The count did not come down after the 2024 reform, the state law that reset how PAGA penalties are calculated (more below).

The five-year trend, taken from two published trackers listed in Sources:

• 2021: 6,502
• 2022: 5,817
• 2023: 7,464
• 2024: 9,464 (a record at the time)
• 2025: 10,098 (about 10,000)

If you see a slightly different total somewhere else, that is normal. Trackers pull the state's count on different dates, and a later pull picks up notices that were filed late. Which tracker supplied which year is in Sources.

One clarification matters. A PAGA notice is a filing with the state agency that starts the process. It is not a lawsuit. Many never become court cases. Still, each one means someone has put your pay practices in writing and filed it with the state. If you want the plain-language version of how PAGA works, we keep one at our PAGA explainer.

The cost side is real, and it comes from ordinary food businesses. In February 2025, the California Labor Commissioner's Office announced $1.1 million in enforcement action against a Buena Park restaurant, Food Source LLC, affecting at least 90 workers (DIR news release 2025-25). They included unpaid overtime and incomplete wage statements.

Why a 25 to 200 employee grocery store sees wage-and-hour first

Grocery is a high-headcount, hourly, multi-shift business. Cashiers, produce, meat, deli, stocking, and receiving all run on different clocks. In 10+ years of in-house HR across 15 locations and 1,000+ employees, that produces three predictable weak spots:

• Math that multiplies. Under PAGA a wage statement error is counted per employee, per pay period. A template problem that touched 60 employees over 26 pay periods becomes a large number quickly.
• Breaks that happen on paper, not on the floor. A register line at 6 p.m. does not care about the break schedule. The schedule says the break happened; the time clock often says otherwise.
• A manager title does not cancel overtime. "Department manager" is a common title in grocery. Exempt means overtime rules do not apply. Whether that person is actually exempt depends on the duties they actually perform and how they are paid, not the name on the badge.

None of these mean a bad employer. They mean a busy one. That is why they respond well to a routine check.

The 5-point checklist

Run each item against real records, not policy documents. Start with one pay period and one hourly employee. If you run more than one store, pick one first.

1. Wage statements. Labor Code §226 lists the items a California wage statement must show, such as gross wages, total hours, rates, deductions, and pay period dates. Take one hourly employee's stub and confirm every item is present and readable. Incomplete wage statements are a common allegation (a claim listed in a notice) and one of the easiest to find on your own.
2. Meal and rest periods. California requires meal and rest periods for non-exempt employees. Missed or late periods often come with premium pay (an extra hour of pay owed to the employee). Compare two weeks of time-clock data against your break policy. Look for meal punches that are always exactly 30 minutes, or shifts over five hours with no meal punch at all.
3. Overtime and exempt classification. For every salaried "manager" or "supervisor," write down what they actually did last week. If most of the day was checking, stocking, or covering a register, that is worth a closer look. Also confirm daily and weekly overtime is calculated for hourly staff.
4. Handbook and required training. Confirm your handbook was updated within the last year and that harassment-prevention training records exist for all employees (California requires it for employers with 5 or more employees). An outdated handbook is rarely the claim itself, but it is often where a weak record trail begins.
5. Independent contractor use. List every person you pay by invoice who works inside the store on a regular schedule. California uses a strict test for contractor status, and each role is different. Regular in-store work is the pattern that most often deserves a review.

The first notice a store receives commonly points at item 1 or item 2. Those are also the two you can fully check with records you already have.

What changed in 2024, and what it does not promise

The 2024 reform (AB 2288 and SB 92, signed July 1, 2024, which apply to civil actions filed on or after June 19, 2024, with an exception for cases whose PAGA notice was filed before that date) changed how penalties are calculated. The headline penalty amounts are $100 or $200 per employee per pay period, and 35% of penalties now go to employees. The part that matters for prevention: penalties may be capped at 15% of the penalty sought if the employer took all reasonable steps to comply before receiving a notice, and at 30% if the employer takes all reasonable steps to come into compliance within 60 days after receiving the notice.

Two cautions. First, what counts as "all reasonable steps" is fact-specific. Taking steps does not guarantee any reduction. Second, the 2025 filing count shows the reform did not reduce the number of notices. What it did do is give employers a documented reason to audit before a notice arrives, and to keep proof.

What to do this week

• Monday: one stub, one checklist. Pull a single hourly employee's pay stub and run item 1. Write down anything missing.
• Midweek: two weeks of punches. Print or export two weeks of time-clock records (punch cards count) for your busiest department and scan for the meal-period patterns in item 2.
• Friday: the manager list. Write one sentence per salaried manager describing what they actually do. Keep it. A dated note like this shows you were paying attention.

Fix the one thing you found, date the fix, and file it. Then move to the next item next week. The goal is a habit, not a project.

Call first. Send nothing.

Wage statements and breaks are two of the seven areas in our HR Audit (7 Key Areas).

When you have run one of the five checks, call (213) 854-2974. English and Korean, both fine. There is nothing to write up for us, nothing to email, and no records to send. Keep every note in your own file where it belongs. The call is free and runs about 30 minutes, and what we sort out on it is the question owners actually care about: whether this belongs on this week's list or next quarter's.

Prefer to look on your own first? The free 10-question HR Self-Check covers the same areas in about 10 minutes and gives you a short written summary. Either way, spend 15 minutes on your records now so your core business keeps your attention later.

Epiko Hub is an HR consulting firm. For legal questions, consult with a state-licensed attorney. This article is general HR information, not legal advice. Coordinate with your own independent licensed attorney before acting on any legal question.