The Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment held an April 29 hearing to review SB 588, the 2015 law meant to give the Labor Commissioner stronger tools to collect unpaid wages and combat wage theft. Committee members framed the session as an oversight check on whether the law is working and whether more authority or funding is needed.
During the hearing, Labor Commissioner Lilia Garcia-Browa said the office recovered $78 million in unpaid wages in 2025, including $41 million through the wage claim adjudication program, according to the committee transcript summary. She also said the Judgment Enforcement Unit has recovered $125 million since SB 588 took effect and that first-year judgment recovery has risen from 17% before the law to 46% now.
Witnesses said SB 588 has improved collections by authorizing liens, levies, joint liability, successor liability and stop-work orders, but argued that the law still falls short when employers hide assets, change ownership or dissolve before judgments can be enforced. Advocates urged lawmakers to consider pre-judgment liens, more staff for the Judgment Enforcement Unit and stronger license-revocation tools, especially for care-home and other low-wage industries.
Workers also described how long it can take to collect even after winning a judgment. One caregiver said she was still waiting to collect more than $300,000 years after a judgment, while public comment from SEIU California urged lawmakers to keep targeting bad actors and expand the law’s reach.
No committee vote or bill amendment was recorded in the available hearing excerpt. The hearing was documented in the Assembly audio record for April 29, which is available here.