Yesterday, California Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 10 (AB 10) which raises the state’s minimum wage to $9.00/hour on July 1, 2014 and then to $10.00/hour on January 1, 2016. Unless some other state raises its minimum wage in the interim, the Governor’s signing of AB 10 gives California the highest state minimum wage… Read More
Posts Categorized In: Employment Law Advice & Counsel
Governor Brown Signs SB 770 Expanding Family Disability Insurance Benefits
Yesterday, California Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 770 which expands California’s temporary family disability insurance program. Under the new law, employees who take time off to care for a seriously ill sibling, parent-in-law, grandparent, or grandchild are also eligible for up to 6 weeks of family disability leave benefits. The prior law granted those benefits… Read More
Governor Brown Signs Bill Clarifying Same-Sex Sexual Harassment Standards
California’s Fair Employment & Housing Act (“FEHA”) already prohibits discrimination and harassment “based on sex.” Most people properly understand the term “sex” in this context to equate to “gender” or “gender identity.” Thus, most people understand that it is illegal for an employer to treat a female employee differently than a similarly situated male employee… Read More
Court Upholds $173,250 in Penalties Against Employer for Missing and Incomplete I-9 Forms
On August 6, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld $173,250 in penalties against an employer for failing to maintain correctly completed I-9 forms for newly hired employees. The employer, a drywall company, was notified by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) officials that it was conducting an audit of the employer’s I-9 compliance…. Read More
U.S. Supreme Court Makes Retaliation Cases Harder to Prove
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its long-awaited ruling in University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar. The issue in that case was whether a plaintiff alleging illegal retaliation under Title VII against her employer had to show but-for causation (i.e., that the employer would not have taken the adverse employment action but for its… Read More
EEOC Sues Employers for Making Hiring Decisions Based on Criminal Background Checks
A little over a year ago, I told you that the EEOC published new guidelines for how an employer should (1) handle inquiries into an applicant’s prior arrests and convictions, and (2) make employment decisions based on an applicant’s prior criminal record. You can find my blog post from May 1, 2012 here. Not surprisingly,… Read More
Store Manager Loses Exempt Status by Performing Nonexempt Duties
On May 23, 2013, the California Court of Appeal ruled in Heyen v. Safeway that a store manager lost her exempt status by simultaneously performing exempt and nonexempt duties. The plaintiff in this case, Linda Heyen, worked for Safeway as an Assistant Store Manager. Safeway classified Ms. Heyen as an “exempt” executive employee, which made… Read More
Does Your Company Use Smart Hiring Strategies?
I am often retained to recruit executive and professional-level employees for companies. I use a specific process that goes way beyond asking standard questions like, “What did you like about your last job?” or “Why do you want to work here?” Those questions aren’t all that helpful in determining whether a candidate “fits” well into… Read More
San Jose’s New Minimum Wage Ordinance Goes Into Effect
On March 11, 2013, San Jose’s Minimum Wage Ordinance went into effect. That law, which was passed by voters in the November 2012 election, requires employers to pay their employees a minimum wage of $10.00 per hour for work performed within the city limits and requires the minimum wage to increase annually by the cost… Read More
Employee Who Exhausts Pregnancy Disability Leave May Be Entilted to More Leave
On February 21, 2013, the California Court of Appeal held in Sanchez v. Swissport, Inc. held that an employer may be required to provide additional leave as a “reasonable accommodation” beyond the 4 month maximum pregnancy disability leave (“PDL”) required by California law. The Facts of the Case Employee Sanchez was diagnosed with a high-risk pregnancy that… Read More