Lab. Code, § 204 · Article 1. General Occupations
Lab. Code, § 204
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) All wages, other than those mentioned in Section 201, 201.3, 202, 204.1, or 204.2, earned by any person in any employment are due and payable twice during each calendar month, on days designated in advance by the employer as the regular paydays. Labor performed between the 1st and 15th days, inclusive, of any calendar month shall be paid for between the 16th and the 26th day of the month during which the labor was performed, and labor performed between the 16th and the last day, inclusive, of any calendar month, shall be paid for between the 1st and 10th day of the following month. However, salaries of executive, administrative, and professional employees of employers covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act, as set forth pursuant to Section 13(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, as amended through March 1, 1969, in Part 541 of Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations, as that part now reads or may be amended to read at any time hereafter, may be paid once a month on or before the 26th day of the month during which the labor was performed if the entire month’s salaries, including the unearned portion between the date of payment and the last day of the month, are paid at that time.
(b) (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, all wages earned for labor in excess of the normal work period shall be paid no later than the payday for the next regular payroll period.
(2) An employer is in compliance with the requirements of subdivision (a) of Section 226 relating to total hours worked by the employee, if hours worked in excess of the normal work period during the current pay period are itemized as corrections on the paystub for the next regular pay period. Any corrections set out in a subsequently issued paystub shall state the inclusive dates of the pay period for which the employer is correcting its initial report of hours worked.
(c) However, when employees are covered by a collective bargaining agreement that provides different pay arrangements, those arrangements shall apply to the covered employees.
(d) The requirements of this section shall be deemed satisfied by the payment of wages for weekly, biweekly, or semimonthly payroll if the wages are paid not more than seven calendar days following the close of the payroll period.
(e) Notwithstanding subdivision (a) of Section 220, all wages earned by employees directly employed by the Regents of the University of California shall be paid on a regular payday. For the employees on a monthly payment schedule, payment is due no later than five days after the close of the monthly payroll period. For employees on a more frequent payment schedule, payment is due according to the pay schedule announced by the University of California in advance. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit the Regents of the University of California from allowing its employees to choose to distribute their pay so that they will receive paychecks throughout the year, rather than during pay periods worked only.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2019, Ch. 508, Sec. 2. (SB 698) Effective January 1, 2020.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=LAB§ionNum=204.
- Text hash
- sha256 0fa26c7969c71cf959d7d7f430cc3f096d269dc12457358086af2f9a5b212360
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
This section cites
Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.
Labor Code
- Lab. Code, § 201Printed as Section 201, 201.3, 202, 204.1, or 204.2
- Lab. Code, § 201.3Printed as Section 201, 201.3, 202, 204.1, or 204.2
- Lab. Code, § 202Printed as Section 201, 201.3, 202, 204.1, or 204.2
- Lab. Code, § 204.1Printed as Section 201, 201.3, 202, 204.1, or 204.2
- Lab. Code, § 204.2Printed as Section 201, 201.3, 202, 204.1, or 204.2
- Lab. Code, § 220Printed as Section 220
- Lab. Code, § 226Printed as Section 226
Cited by 11 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Lab. Code, § 204. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Labor Code
- Lab. Code, § 201.5Printed as Section 204
- Lab. Code, § 201.6Printed as Section 204
- Lab. Code, § 201.8Printed as Section 204
- Lab. Code, § 204bPrinted as Section 204
- Lab. Code, § 204cPrinted as Section 204
- Lab. Code, § 210Printed as Sections 201.3, 204, 204b, 204.1, 204.2, 204.11, 205, 205.5, and 1197.5
- Lab. Code, § 215Printed as Section 201.3, 204, 204b, 205, 207, 208, 209, or 212
- Lab. Code, § 220Printed as Sections 201.3, 201.5, 201.6, 201.7, 201.8, 203.1, 203.5, 204, 204a, 204b, 204c, 204.1, 205, and 205.5
- Lab. Code, § 2675Printed as Sections 204, 209, 212, 221, 222, 222.5, 223, 226, 227, and 227.5
- Lab. Code, § 2699Printed as Section 204
- Lab. Code, § 2699.5Printed as Sections 98.6, 201, 201.3, 201.5, 201.7, 202, 203, 203.1, 203.5, 204, 204a, 204b, 204.1, 204.2, 205, 205.5, 206, 206.5, 208, 209, and 212
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.