Alaska Airlines Ordered to Pay $25 Million for Violating California Pay Stub Requirements

Alaska Airlines has been ordered to pay $25 million for violating California pay stub requirements.

Julie Gunther is a San Diego resident and has been an Alaska Airlines flight attendant since 2015. She filed the lawsuit in 2017 because she noticed her paychecks were not consistent for similar trips.

When she looked at her wage statements, she didn’t have enough information to determine why there were such discrepancies in her pay. Her lawyer said when Alaska Airlines was asked to supply the additional information, the company failed to do so.

California employment law allows employees to pursue compensation if a company committed a “knowing and intentional failure” to follow California pay stub requirements. In such cases, employees may receive the greater of all actual damages or $50 for the first pay period violation and $100 for each following violation up to $4,000. The employer also could be ordered to pay court costs and attorney’s fees.

The $25 million Alaska Airlines judgment will be split among the state of California, Gunther and 1,000 other flight attendants, according to the judge’s ruling last month.

Alaska Airlines also has until January 2020 to meet California Labor Code 226 in regards to ensuring California flight attendants regularly receive complete pay stubs that are in compliance with the state’s laws.

Alaska Airlines is planning to appeal the ruling – insisting that because flight attendants conduct a majority of their duties within air space that is overseen by federal regulations and because the flight attendants have their own separate labor agreements – that California law should not apply, according to NBC News.

The airline released a statement, saying “Trying to comply with California law simultaneously, potentially the laws of other states and our collective bargaining agreements is difficult if not impossible.”

California Pay Stub Requirements

According to the State of California Department of Industrial Relations, the employer must provide an itemized wage statement to an employee each time the employee is paid.

The itemized wage statement must include the following:

• Company name and address
• Employee name
• Employee Social Security number or employee ID number
• Pay rate
• Pay period
• Hours worked
• Rate for hours worked
• Gross earnings
• Deductions
• Net earnings
• Accumulated sick leave

If a California employee has difficulty determining exactly what hours the pay is for, is unable to determine how the pay was calculated or sees deductions from pay that are not recognized by the employee, the wage statement might be in violation of California’s Labor Code.

Alaska Airlines is not the first employer to face scrutiny over California wage statement requirements.

In February, Cinemark and Century Theatres settled a class action lawsuit for $2.9 million, which provided about 6,000 current and former employees with compensation. Both current and former ushers and concession workers alleged the theater companies distributed 66,000 pay stubs that indicated wrong overtime rates for three years.

The rate discrepancies caused the employees to be unable to determine whether or not they had been accurately compensated.

Join a Free California Pay Stub Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you are a California worker and received a pay stub that was missing any required information, you may qualify to join this California paycheck stub class action lawsuit investigation.

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