Final Paycheck Laws: When Is Your Last Check Due?
When your last paycheck is due if you quit or were fired, what it must include, what an employer can deduct, California's waiting-time penalty with a worked example, and how severance fits in.
A final paycheck is where employers cut corners most often, and where the deadline depends almost entirely on your state. Federal law has no deadline for final pay. The FLSA only requires that you eventually be paid for all hours worked, so the timing comes from state law and ranges from the same day to the next regular payday.
Fired versus quit
Many states set a shorter deadline when the employer ends the job. Texas gives a fired employee six calendar days, while an employee who quits is paid by the next regular payday. New York generally requires final pay by the next regular payday either way. Check both situations for your state, because assuming the wrong one can cost you weeks.
California: same day
California has the strictest rule. A fired or laid-off employee must be paid all wages, including accrued unused vacation, immediately on the last day. An employee who quits without notice must be paid within 72 hours. If you give at least 72 hours' notice, the check is due on your last day. Filing details are in the California wage-claim guide.
If a California employer willfully pays late, it owes a waiting-time penalty of one day of wages for each day the check is late, up to 30 days. At $200 a day, a check that arrives two weeks late carries about $2,800 in penalties on top of the wages. A check that never arrives hits the 30-day cap, which at the same rate is $6,000.
What the final check must include
All wages earned through your last day, including overtime. In California, Colorado, Montana and Nebraska it also includes accrued unused vacation, because those states treat it as earned wages. Elsewhere, payout follows your employer's written policy. A worker with 60 unused hours at $30 an hour is owed $1,800 in a payout state. PTO payout by state has the full map.
Earned commissions and nondiscretionary bonuses that had already vested also belong in the final check. A bonus you were promised and earned is wages, whatever the offer letter calls it.
Deductions and held checks
Employers often try to dock a final check for a laptop that was not returned, a register shortage or a uniform. In most states that is restricted or illegal without your written authorization, and any deduction that drops you below minimum wage for the hours worked is unlawful almost everywhere. Withholding the whole check until you return equipment is a violation in many states. The employer can pursue the equipment separately, but it generally cannot hold earned wages hostage.
Severance is not final pay
No federal law requires severance. You are entitled to it only if a contract or written policy promises it, or in a mass layoff where the WARN Act applies. WARN requires employers with 100 or more employees to give 60 days of written notice before a layoff of 50 or more workers or a plant closing, and missing notice means back pay and benefits for each missing day up to 60.
Severance usually comes with a release of claims. Workers over 40 must be given at least 21 days to consider it (45 in a group layoff) and 7 days to revoke after signing. Use that time. Before you sign, check whether you have unpaid overtime or a misclassification claim, because the release waives them and they can be worth more than the severance. Your final wages are owed regardless of whether you sign anything.
Frequently asked questions
My employer is holding my last check until I return my equipment. Is that legal? In most states, no. They can pursue the property separately, but withholding earned pay is itself a violation in many states.
I never received my final paycheck. What now? Write down your last day, your rate and your hours, send a short written request, and if it does not arrive, file a wage claim with your state labor agency or the DOL Wage and Hour Division.
Does unused PTO have to be paid out? It depends on your state and your employer's written policy. In California it must be paid. In other states the policy decides, and a promise of payout is enforceable.
Work out what your last check should be
Add your unpaid hours, any overtime and accrued PTO, then run the totals through the final paycheck calculator to see the amount and your state's deadline.
If the check is late or short, the back-pay calculator estimates the total, and the $29 Claim Kit builds a demand letter and a state filing guide from it. Your state labor department can help you recover it. This is general information, not legal advice.
Related guides
- PTO Payout by State: Use It or Lose It, Explained Which states require employers to pay out accrued vacation when you leave, where use-it-or-lose-it policies are legal, and how to value the PTO in your final paycheck.
- Wage Garnishment Rules: How Much of Your Paycheck Can Be Taken? Federal CCPA limits cap most garnishments at 25% of disposable income or 30 times the minimum wage. Here's how the rules work for ordinary debts, child support, taxes, and how state law can protect more.
- My Paycheck Was Late or Bounced. What Are My Rights? A late or bounced paycheck is a wage violation in most states, often with penalties on top of the wages owed. Here's what to do in the first 24 hours, and how the penalties work.