An Orange County car wash company’s recent $1.2 million settlement with the California Labor Commissioner’s Office shows how employers rip off their workers.
Newport Auto Spa, Inc. agreed to pay the sum after investigators uncovered “widespread wage theft and labor law violations,” according to the labor commissioner’s office. The company, which owns luxury carwash The Car Spa, allegedly failed to pay workers minimum wages and overtime, forced them to skip required breaks, and kept them on the job without pay.
“Employers who deny workers their full pay exploit their workforce and hurt honest businesses that follow the law,” California Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower said in a December statement announcing the settlement.
Some of the 20-plus employees who were ripped off had worked at the car wash for two decades or more. Ticket writers, washers, dryers, and detailers at The Car Spa said they worked for years through wage theft without reporting it because they feared retaliation.
Sadly, this company is no outlier. California workers claim $338 million in lost or stolen wages each year, according to CalMatters. Full-time workers paid below the minimum wage rate lose roughly 20% of their total paychecks annually – nearly $4,000 in earned wages a year – a separate report by Rutgers University found.
For example, Disney reportedly agreed last year to pay $233 million to settle a class action lawsuit involving nearly 52,000 workers at Disneyland in Anaheim. The workers alleged they were not paid the local minimum wage. The suit forced the House of Mouse to ratchet up its employee pay rates and pay them back what they were owed.
At Justice Law Corporation, our California wage and hour attorneys help working people across the state fight back to protect their rights and ensure they are fully paid. We are seasoned attorneys who have dedicated our careers to assisting people in wage and hour, discrimination, and other cases.
Our results speak for themselves. Our attorneys in 2025 secured a $15 million recovery for hourly workers shortchanged by a health care company, for example. A year earlier, an $8.5 million recovery for insurance employers on similar claims.
It is vital for working people to understand their rights regarding wages and hours. Here is what you should know.
California Minimum Wage, Overtime Pay Requirements
The statewide minimum wage for employees is now $16.90 per hour. This is the lowest rate that employers can pay workers for their time on the job, unless they are covered by higher wage floors in place in certain cities and counties across the state.
The minimum wage in Los Angeles is $17.87 an hour, for example, while employers in West Hollywood must pay employees at least $20.25 per hour. Workers in specific fields, such as healthcare, fast food, and hospitality, must be paid at higher minimum rates under state and local laws.
Employers with operations in multiple cities or counties must comply with the wage requirements based on where their workers perform their jobs, not where the company is based or where the employees live.
Workers are also entitled to higher overtime pay rates. They generally must be paid at 1.5 times their normal rate for hours worked over eight hours in a single workday or over 40 hours in a single workweek. The overtime rate also applies for the first eight hours worked on the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek. It rises to twice an employee’s normal rate for time worked over 12 hours in a day, or for time worked beyond eight hours on the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek.
The truth is that many employers try to underpay their workers, whether by refusing to pay overtime rates, withholding pay for specious “fees,” or forcing employees to be “on call.” Many also seek to classify employees as independent contractors in order to avoid paying and other responsibilities.
This is illegal. Employers cannot simply choose which laws they will comply with and which they will disregard. They also cannot just decide who is an employee and who is an independent contractor. State law requires employers to treat the vast majority of workers as employees, entitled to the full rights and protections that come with this status.
Class Actions for Employees Who Have Been Ripped Off
Anyone who has been unlawfully shortchanged by his or her employer in California has the right to file claims against the employer. That includes joining together with coworkers who have also been ripped off in a class action.
Class actions are lawsuits in which groups of workers pursuing similar claims collectively sue their employers. Employees often use these suits to challenge their employers’ policies or practices that water down pay across a large group of employees
Class actions give working people the ability to level the playing field with massive corporations and other large employers. They also give workers leverage to push employers to pay them what they are owed and to change pay and other policies to avoid similar suits in the future.
Employees in wage and hour class actions generally can seek:
- Back pay
- Interest on unpaid wages
- Penalties
- Attorneys’ fees and court costs
Class actions are also a powerful tool in situations in which workers’ individual claims may be too small to justify bringing individually. If hundreds of workers or more are being shortchanged the same way, the employer may be on the hook for much more in damages than if each worker pursues their claims separately.
Our California Wage and Hour Attorneys Can Help
If you believe that your employer is not fully paying you or violating your rights on the job, you do not need to go it alone. A California wage and hour attorney at Justice Law Corporation can help you evaluate your claim and understand your rights and options.
Our office is conveniently located in Pasadena. Contact us at (818) 230-7502 to schedule a free consultation with a California wage and hour attorney.
