Trader Joe's California Wage & Hour and PAGA Class Action Settlement ($12.47M)

California Grocery Wages · Pending — Automatic Payment

Current Status

There is no claim form and no claim deadline. If you qualify, the settlement administrator already has you on its list from Trader Joe's payroll records, and a check goes to your last known mailing address after the settlement takes effect. The court granted preliminary approval on March 12, 2026 and certified the class for settlement purposes. The Final Approval Hearing is set for April 22, 2027 at 3:00 p.m. in Department 2 before Judge Mark A. McCannon of the San Mateo County Superior Court; no final approval order has been entered, so no payment date has been announced. October 2, 2026 is the response deadline published by the settlement administrator — the date for the three things an employee can actually do, which are exclude yourself, object, or dispute the workweek count on your notice. For most people the useful step is simply making sure the administrator has a current address.

What Changed Recently?

The court granted preliminary approval of the settlement on March 12, 2026, which is what set the notice program in motion and appointed Apex Class Action LLC as settlement administrator. At the same time the court moved the Final Approval Hearing well past the August 13, 2026 date the parties had proposed, because it was unavailable then and hears complex cases on Thursdays. The parties then stipulated to push every intermediate deadline out in step with the new hearing date, and the court signed that stipulation on March 30, 2026.

The dispute itself is older than the settlement by more than five years. Three separate cases — two filed in San Francisco County Superior Court in December 2020 and February 2021, and one filed in San Mateo County — were coordinated for all purposes in November 2021 as a Judicial Council Coordination Proceeding titled Trader Joe's Wage and Hour Cases, JCCP 5196. Across those complaints the plaintiffs alleged that Trader Joe's rounded employee time punches in a way that shorted them on pay, failed to include "Thank You" pay in the regular rate used to calculate overtime and certain absence pay, failed to provide compliant meal and rest periods, failed to pay minimum and overtime wages and sick pay, issued inaccurate itemized wage statements, failed to reimburse necessary business expenses, and failed to pay wages when due during employment and at termination. The suits also pleaded claims for civil penalties under California's wage and hour laws through the Private Attorneys General Act and under the state's Unfair Competition Law.

The case had already been litigated past the pleading stage. On June 13, 2025 the court granted class certification in part, certifying a rounding class, a regular rate class tied to "Thank You" pay, and derivative wage statement and waiting time subclasses, while denying certification of a proposed meal period class. The parties then mediated on September 5, 2025 and settled on a mediator's proposal. The settlement class negotiated afterward is broader than what the court certified, and it reaches employees the certification order had left out.

Trader Joe's denies the allegations. The settlement agreement states that the company maintains it complied with the law in every respect, properly paid all legally required compensation including the "Thank You" pay it says it provided voluntarily, and that a class should not be certified except for settlement purposes. No court has found the company liable on these claims, and the agreement is expressly not an admission of liability or wrongdoing.

Who Qualifies?

There are two overlapping groups, and an employee can be in one or both. Both are drawn from Trader Joe's own records, so neither asks anyone to sign up.

• Class Members — everyone who is or previously was employed by Trader Joe's in California as non-exempt Crew, a Merchant or a Mate at any time from December 4, 2016 through March 31, 2024.