All 14 verifiable claims verified against Tier-1 sources: California Labor Code §226.7 + §512 + §226 (leginfo.legislature.ca.gov), the IWC Wage Orders' rest-period formula as codified in the California DIR's published guidance, Murphy v. Kenneth Cole Productions, 40 Cal.4th 1094 (2007) on the per-category premium cap, and the Magadia v. Wal-Mart Stores procedural history (district court 2019; 9th Circuit reversal of the §226 portion 2021). The five modeled-data thresholds (5th-hour rule, 10th-hour rule, rest-break increments, 1-hour-per-category cap, 2-hour daily ceiling) all match the underlying statutes and the controlling California Supreme Court interpretation. Wage Order 5's healthcare double-meal waiver is intentionally unmodeled and surfaced in the methodology's "What's not modeled" section.
5 claims
First-meal-break trigger — shifts over 5 hours require one meal break
Second-meal-break trigger — shifts over 10 hours require a second meal break
Rest-break thresholds — 3.5h / 6h / 10h / 14h yield 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 rest breaks
The "major fraction" rule means more than half of the next 4-hour block triggers an additional break. The tool's published breakpoints (3.5h, 6h, 10h, 14h) are the standard DIR-aligned expression of that rule.
Per-category premium cap — one hour for any meal violation that day plus one hour for any rest violation that day
The per-category framing was settled by the California Supreme Court in Murphy: "An employee is owed only a single premium each day for all meal periods missed during that day, plus a single premium for all rest periods missed." The tool's (anyMealViolation ? 1 : 0) + (anyRestViolation ? 1 : 0) implements this directly.
Daily ceiling of 2 hours of premium pay
4 claims
Cal. Lab. Code §226.7 — "one additional hour of pay at the employee's regular rate of compensation for each workday that the meal or rest or recovery period is not provided"
Cal. Lab. Code §512(a) — first meal break required for shifts over 5 hours; second meal break required for shifts over 10 hours
Cal. Lab. Code §226 — wage-statement penalty cascade for missing premium pay ($50 first violation, $100 per subsequent pay period per employee, capped at $4,000)
IWC Wage Orders rest-break formula — "ten (10) minutes net rest time per four (4) hours worked or major fraction thereof"
2 claims
Murphy v. Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc., 40 Cal.4th 1094 (2007) — §226.7 premiums are wages (not penalties), subject to the 3-year statute of limitations under CCP §338, AND one premium per category per workday regardless of number of violations within the category
Donohue v. AMN Services, LLC, 11 Cal.5th 58 (2021) — electronic time records showing a short, late, or missed meal period raise a rebuttable presumption of a §226.7 violation
Donohue is referenced in the methodology's re-review triggers and supplies background framing for the FAQ; it does not drive any calculator constant.
1 claim
Magadia v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. — ~$102M district-court judgment (2019) driven by §226 wage-statement cascade; 9th Circuit reversed the §226 portion (2021) on a class-rep Article III standing issue; the underlying §226 theory remained intact and PAGA penalties survived
Magadia v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 384 F. Supp. 3d 1058 (N.D. Cal. 2019) — district court judgment
999 F.3d 668 (9th Cir. 2021) — partial reversal on standingThe FAQ's framing accurately surfaces the procedural arc — the case demonstrates the §226 cascade mechanic without overstating the headline dollar figure or conflating district-court entry with appellate outcome.
11 unique sources cited across the report — click to audit any claim directly against its evidence.
Magadia v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 384 F. Supp. 3d 1058 (N.D. Cal. 2019) — district court judgment
Every claim above links to the source we used. Open any source to compare the wording here with the underlying rule, guidance, court opinion, or product behavior.
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