There is likely no greater misunderstood or misapplied area of employment law than federal and California compensation requirements. Consequently, employers can fall inadvertently into expensive battles with current or terminated employees over claims of miscalculated and unpaid wages, inadequate timekeeping, from disgruntled employees, paystub defects, and much more.
Such claims may stem from alleged willful or unwitting misclassification of an employee as exempt-from-overtime. Unless an individual performs high-level duties for sufficient portions of each workweek as specified by federal and state laws, paying that person on a lump sum “salary” basis and without overtime compensation may be a very expensive error.