Walmart Hit with Six Million Dollar Verdict for “Discouraging” Off-Site Meal Breaks California employers must provide non-overtime-exempt employees unpaid meal break(s) based on the number of hours worked in a given day. See, Required Meal Periods and Rest Breaks Revisited (April, 2018). The California Supreme Court’s 2012 Brinker Restaurant Corp. decision clarified that “employer-provided” breaks […]
New Workplace Notice Available For Family Related Leaves Starting April 1, 2019, covered California employers must post the new Family Care and Medical Leave and Pregnancy Disability Leave notice (DFEH-100-21/March 2019). Previously, the notice was only for employers with 50 or more on payroll. It summarized employee rights and responsibilities when requesting Family Care […]
KNOCK, KNOCK When It’s Your Turn For a Government Payroll Audit For California, the Employment Development Department (EDD) is responsible for the administration of unemployment and disability insurance, workforce training services and payroll audits. The agency has the power to impose significant, potentially fatal penalties for non-compliance. An EDD visit to look over pay practices […]
California Aims to Protect Workers Against Race-Based Natural Hairstyle Bias Federal, state and local laws have long banned workplace racial discrimination. A recent trend seeks to expand such protections to various race-based traits, particularly certain hairstyles. Under California’s now-pending Senate Bill (SB 188), workplace dress or grooming policies prohibiting natural hairstyles, including Afros, braids and […]
California Employers Must Pay Wages for Required Call-In to Confirm Day’s Work Schedule Employers who require workers to call in to ascertain whether they are needed for a scheduled work shift will now need to rethink this practice. California Industrial Welfare Commission (IWC) publishes “wage orders” containing regulations on wages, breaks, record-keeping and other working […]
California Labor Code section 515.6 exempts certain licensed physicians and surgeons from overtime compensation if they receive set minimum hourly compensation. Effective January 1, 2019, the California Department of Industrial Relations is increasing the minimum from $79.39 to $82.72 per hour, up from $79.39, effective January 1, 2019. To avoid California’s requirements to pay overtime premium […]
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced its 2019 optional standard mileage reimbursement rate for employee business use of a personal vehicle, effective January 1, 2019, increasing from 54.5 cents to 58 cents. The IRS calculates the rate annually based on a study of fixed and variable automotive operating costs, including insurance, repairs, maintenance, gas […]
New 2019 Overtime Exemption Rates California Labor Code section 515.5 exempts certain computer software professionals from overtime compensation if they receive specified minimum compensation. California’s Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) has announced its rate increase for this minimum, effective January 1, 2019, to $45.41, up from $43.58. Alternatively, an otherwise qualified employee paid by salary […]
Employers May be Liable For Unpaid Wages to Subcontractor’s Workers Section 218.7 of the Labor Code, effective January 1, 2018, made contractors responsible for wage and benefit payments to employees of subcontractors who fail to make those payments. It permitted a contractor to require proof of wage and benefit payments from subcontractors and to withhold […]
Radically New Dynamex Test Only Applies to Certain Employee Classification Cases This past spring, the California Supreme Court inexplicably tossed out its decades-old “multi-factor” independent contractor test in favor of a far more stringent three-part “ABC” test. (Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court). See, Independent Contractor Status in California Now Falls Under Radically Different […]