The timing rule
If your employment is terminated, final wages are due immediately at the time of termination. If you resign with at least 72 hours' notice, they are due on your last day. If you resign without that notice, they are due within 72 hours.
Final wages include earned wages and accrued unused vacation, which in California is treated as earned wages rather than a discretionary benefit.
The waiting time penalty
Where the failure to pay on time is wilful, the employer owes a full day's wages for each day the payment is late, capped at thirty days. On a modest hourly wage this frequently exceeds the unpaid wages themselves.
“Wilful” does not require bad motive — it broadly means the employer intentionally failed to pay, not that they set out to harm you. A genuine good-faith dispute about whether the wages are owed is a different matter.
Do not sign a release to get your own wages
Wages that are indisputably owed are not consideration for a release of claims. If a final cheque is presented alongside a broad settlement agreement, that is worth a conversation with an attorney before you sign.
Write down the last day worked and the date paid
The gap is the whole calculation.
Check accrued vacation was included
Unused accrued vacation is payable at the final rate.
Ask in writing
One short email creates the record and often resolves it.
Calculate the exposure before escalating
The waiting time penalty is frequently larger than the wages — that changes the conversation.