California employers have good reason to toe the line when it comes to treating workers fairly. If they fail to pay employees what they’re owed, if they deny them meal and rest breaks, if they expose them to dangerous conditions, businesses could be answerable to the state for substantial penalties.

California cannot fund the requisite army of investigators to police workplaces and enforce its labor laws. Instead it has private citizens who tell the state when they see bad things happening in their workplaces. Lawmakers enacted the Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004, otherwise known as PAGA, because they knew the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) alone couldn’t investigate all employers for compliance with labor laws, and that enforcement was largely hit-and-miss. Businesses could sacrifice employee wages or their right to take breaks with impunity, because there was no meaningful enforcement.