Pineda

When an employee is terminated or resigns from his or her employment, final wages are generally due and payable immediately. (Lab. Code, §§ 201, 202.) Section 203 provides that, if an employer willfully fails to timely pay final wages, “the wages of the employee shall continue as a penalty from the due date thereof at the same rate until paid or until an action therefor is commenced; but the wages shall not continue for more than 30 days.” (§ 203, subd. (a), italics added (hereafter section 203(a)).) A one-year statute of limitations typically governs actions to recover penalties (Code Civ. Proc., § 340, subd. (a)), but section 203 further provides that an employee may sue for “these penalties at any time before the expiration of the statute of limitations on an action for the wages from which the penalties arise.” (§ 203, subd. (b) (hereafter section 203(b)); see Murphy v. Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc. (2007) 40 Cal.4th 1094, 1109 [ 56 Cal.Rptr.3d 880 , 155 P.3d 284 ] (Murphy) [“[T]he Legislature expressly provided that a suit seeking to enforce the section 203 penalty would be subject to the same . . . statute of limitations as an action to recover wages.”].)

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