The minimum wage is here to stay, but it has become more complicated to apply to some classes of employees. Until this century, the issue of whether employees are adequately paid at the applicable minimum wage in California...more
A California appellate court ruled on February 28, 2017, that employees paid on a commission basis must be separately compensated for legally required rest periods (Vaquero v. Stoneledge Furniture LLC). Although this decision...more
A California appellate court ruled yesterday that workers paid on a commission basis must be separately compensated for legally required rest periods (Vaquero v. Stoneledge Furniture LLC). When combined with a state Supreme...more
The past several years have been a difficult time for many California employers when it comes to wage and hour compliance. But if enterprising plaintiffs’ attorneys have their way, times will get even worse in the coming...more
Perhaps no field of class action litigation in California is more fraught with complex certification issues than determining whether the administrative exemption applies to network, internet, and database administrators or...more
On Monday, July 25, 2016, the Fresno County Superior Court denied a request to postpone the deadline for qualified employers to notify the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) of their election to participate in the...more
California employers continue to struggle with how to comply with their obligation to provide meal and rest periods to their non-exempt employees. Although the California Supreme Court’s groundbreaking Brinker decision from...more
New Federal Regulations Include A Higher Minimum Salary Requirement -
As of December 1, 2016, the minimum salary for salaried exempt employees under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) will increase from $455 to...more
Today California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a sweeping plan that will eventually increase the statewide minimum wage from $10.00 to $15.00 per hour. While the state of New York announced a deal last week that will...more
On Monday, March 28, 2016, California Governor Jerry Brown, flanked by union and state government officials, announced an agreement with state legislators to increase the statewide minimum wage from $10.00 to $15.00 per hour....more
Although meal periods have occupied central stage in class action litigation over the past decade in California, rest-period litigation will soon join the “break wars.” A new law that just took effect on January 1, 2016...more
There is nothing so central to wage-hour laws than the sacred domain of “hours worked.” The concept is simple: employees record the time they spend working, and from this data employers generate labor budgets and employee pay...more
California leads the nation in vigilantly regulating the conditions which constitute “hours worked.” Definitions are established, modified, and expanded by the California Labor Code, its Wage Orders, and decisions by...more
As class actions continue to plague employers in California, one area that is often overlooked is expense reimbursement. The California Labor Code makes clear that employers must indemnify employees for all necessary...more
Three years ago, the California Supreme Court addressed the scope of California’s overtime regulations contained in the California Labor Code and Wage Orders promulgated by its Industrial Welfare Commission. Sullivan et al v....more
As the new year begins, California employers, already weary from added wage and hour laws and regulations enacted over the past several years, have yet more to comply with. Here are the highlights....more
With the increasing focus on wage-and-hour litigation, the issue of an employee’s “regular rate” arises in most every case involving alleged unpaid overtime. It also factors into an employer’s payroll, each and every pay...more
The salaried exemptions remain an actively litigated area in employment litigation. In order to be exempt from overtime and related regulations governing timekeeping and meal and rest periods, it’s not enough that an...more
Boss: Time for your lunch break.
Employee: Naw, I’ll just finish up what I’m working on and take my break later.
Boss: That’s fine with me, but you are free to go now.
Employee: Gotcha! Now you owe...more
Effective January 1, 2013, a new California law requires that employees entering into employment agreements which involve compensation, even in part, on a “commission” basis must be provided a written contract which sets...more