Minimum Hourly Rate Increases Are Near California Labor Code section 515.6 exempts certain licensed physicians and surgeons from overtime compensation as long as they receive set minimum hourly rates of pay. The California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) is increasing this minimum, effective January 1, 2017. To avoid California’s requirements to pay overtime premium rates after […]
What to Do When There’s a Death in the Family On Monday morning, one of your two salespeople requests three days off to attend his grandmother’s funeral in Minnesota. On Thursday, the other salesperson requests five days off to attend the funeral of a loved one in Hawaii. Are you legally obligated to grant either […]
Curbing Personal Cell Phone Use In The Workplace While cell phones can speed work-related communications when employees are out of the office, workers’ personal use of their mobile devices while on-the-clock has become the top “productivity killer” for business. According to a June 9, 2016 Career Builder survey, eight out of ten workers have smartphones […]
Congressmember Seeks to Slow New Federal Overtime Exemption Rule The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued its Final Rule in May 2016, raising minimum salary amounts for exempt-from-overtime executive, administrative, professional, computer and outside sales employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). See “New Stricter Federal Requirements on Exemptions from Overtime, Employers Must Comply […]
REQUIRE NEW NOTICES Continuing the trend of escalating minimum wage laws, numerous cities and one county in California increased their minimum wage effective July 1, 2016. See, for example, our blogs on San Francisco, Santa Monica, Pasadena, Los Angeles City, and Los Angeles County. The laws vary in their application to smaller and larger employers, […]
Coordinating Employee Summer Time-Off Can Be an Exercise in Diplomacy No California employer is obligated to provide paid vacation time to its workers. However, such benefit is a common practice, promoting morale and productivity. Once a company grants paid vacation (say, one week annually), it is considered an accruing benefit, i.e., an employee earns it […]
City’s Paid Sick Leave Notice Now Available The City of Los Angeles (City) recently increased minimum wage and doubled California’s paid sick leave requirements (Ordinance No. 184320) for “Employees,” i.e., workers performing labor within the City for a given employer for at least two hours in a particular week. (See below for City limits maps.) […]
California Supreme Court Decides When Independent Newspaper Carriers May Challenge Their Classification as a Class Class action suits challenging company-wide workplace practices and thus posing crippling damage amounts have become big business in California and across the country. See, e.g., our blogs “The Devil is in the Details: Employment Class Action Suits Can Hinge on […]
Protected Against Workplace Discrimination, Harassment Beginning on January 1, 2014, California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) will protect an individual’s “military and veteran status” against employment discrimination and harassment. This new FEHA provision defines military and veteran status as “a member or veteran of the United States Armed Forces, United States Armed Forces Reserve, […]
With political finger-pointing at a fever pitch, the federal government effected a partial operational shutdown on October 1, 2013. The closures continue into a second week with no end in sight. Several employment related agencies are affected. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) provides a free, web-based system (E-Verify) that permits employers to check a […]