The California Legislature has passed a measure, that if signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, establishes new criminal penalties against employers who, having the ability to pay, willfully fail to pay all wages due to discharged or quitting employees within 90 days.
Employers would be facing fines “not less than $1,000 and not more than $10,000, or by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than six months.”
“This bill closes a gap in California’s criminal laws that allows an unscrupulous employer to continue to refuse to pay wages due indefinitely without incurring any additional criminal liability,” says Assemblyman Juan Arambula (I-Fresno), author of the legislation.
Mr. Arambula says there is substantial evidence of the problem being widespread in California, particularly in the underground economy. He points to recent studies by UCLA, "Wage Theft and Workplace
Violations in Los Angeles,"(2010) and the Ford Foundation, "Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers," (2009) that found that more than one quarter of all workers surveyed were not being paid the minimum wage.
http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=16139
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