Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: legal time frame to pay an employee

Employees must be paid on payday (or before). It is a matter of private contract when payday is. California courts have upheld pay schemes of great diversity, including a sawmill's contract with its employees saying they would be paid "in the spring, when we can ship and sell the lumber." The key part is agreement or reasonable expectation. The employer must produce good paychecks when it has agreed to, and the agreement doesn't need to be a formal written contract, it just needs to be what the employees have come to expect. So, make your intentions crystal clear in advance, stick to them, and the employee should have no ground for dispute.