Immigration Status and Wage Claims: What You Need to Know

California law protects the wage rights of all workers — regardless of immigration status. Employers who tell undocumented workers they can’t file claims are lying. The law is explicit.

The Protections

Labor Code § 1171.5 provides that all protections, rights, and remedies under the Labor Code are available to all individuals regardless of immigration or citizenship status. A worker’s immigration status is irrelevant to the validity of a wage claim and cannot be used to limit remedies.

Employers who threaten to report immigration status to discourage a wage claim are committing retaliation. This is illegal under both state and federal law. Workers who experience this kind of coercion have separate claims on top of the underlying wage dispute. The tactic backfires when it’s documented.

The California Wage Theft Recovery System gives workers the exact tools and templates to document violations, calculate what they’re owed, and file the right claims at the right agencies — without paying an attorney to get started. Request your free evaluation here.