What is PAGA Anyway? The California Legislature’s 2024 reforms of the Private Attorneys’ General Act (PAGA) (See PAGA Reform Deal Struck, FELS Newsletter, July 2024) provided some solid opportunities for employers to begin blunting the worst lawsuit abuses from the 2004 law meant to allow allegedly aggrieved employees who’ve suffered unpaid minimum wages, overtime wages, missed rest or meal periods, and reimbursement of expenses to step into the shoes of the State of California and sue their employers to enforce these workplace rights (whether a better solution might have been improved enforcement from the Department of Industrial Relation’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA) which includes the Office of the Labor Commissioner rather than relying on California’s hyperactive plaintiffs’ bar is a separate question). PAGA allows allegedly aggrieved employees to sue employers on behalf of themselves and similarly situated employees, creating class action-like lawsuits without procedural protections for employers like the requirement for the court to certify a class. The result over the last twenty years has been thousands of lawsuits at a massive cost to California employers.

The 2024 reforms included:

• Caps on civil penalties for employers who take “reasonable steps” to comply with the Labor Code;
• New “cure” provisions for PAGA violations (think: a California Highway Patrol “fix-it” ticket);
• Limiting employees to pursuing only claims for violations they personally experienced;
• Confirming the one-year statute of limitations; and,
• Adding a manageability (for trial courts) requirement for PAGA lawsuits.

FELS Can Help! FELS presented a webinar on April 7 to help ag employers understand and act on the opportunities created by the 2024 reforms, PAGA-Proof Your Farm or Ranch, featuring FELS COO Bryan Little and Charlie Hammamjian of the Fresno-based employer defense law firm Sagaser Watkins; FELS members can review the video of the webinar and Charlie’s presentation slides at the link above. FELS members can also access useful PAGA-proofing resources at FELS Resources: Wages & Hours in California: PAGA Proof Your Farm or Ranch.

More Relief on The Way? In February 2026, the LWDA proposed to put some meat on the bones of the 2024 legislative reforms with regulations adding clarity and definition on several important points:

• Administrative Notice Requirements: clarifies the requirements for employees seeking to invoke PAGA to notify LWDA about the complaint, allowing them to track claims, investigate high-priority cases, and manage settlement oversight. The notice triggers a 65-day period during which the LWDA may investigate or authorize the employee’s lawsuit, after which the employee can proceed if the agency takes no action. As a practical matter, LWDA very infrequently intervenes with files of PAGA notices; if these administrative reforms can streamline their review processes, employers might benefit from avoiding costly litigation.
• “Cure” Procedures: clarifies how employers, particularly employers of fewer than 100 employees, can access to “fix-it ticket” features of the 2024 reforms, adds procedural clarity for implementation and documentation of cures, and clarifies that internal communications related to implementing cures is privileged communication.
• Reporting Requirements: potentially on the negative side of the ledger for these regulations, they add new reporting obligations and procedures for reaching proposed settlements. The proposed regulations require employees seeking a settlement to provide notice to other employees with PAGA claims against the same employer, to allow comment on proposed settlements, and allow LDWA 45 days to review proposed settlements. All these requirements will likely delay settlements.

What’s Next? LWDA received extensive comments on the proposed regulations and heard comment in an April 9 public hearing. There is no timetable for the final regulation, and FELS will report back to you when the final regulation is released.