Last year was a busy legislative year in California. The #MeToo and #TimesUp movements in particular spawned a host of new employment laws that took effect on January 1st. If you haven’t done so already, you should review your employee handbook and personnel policies to make sure that you are in compliance with these new laws. SB… Read More
Posts Categorized In: Compensation and Benefits
CA Supreme Court Rejects the “De Minimis” Doctrine — Employers Must Now Pay for Every Minute Worked by an Employee
California has some of the strictest and most complicated wage and hour laws in the nation. And guess what? They’re even stricter and more complicated now after the California Supreme Court rejected the “de minimis” defense for employers in wage and hour disputes in California. What’s the “de minimis” defense anyway? Beginning in 1961, federal… Read More
CA Supreme Court — Bonuses Impact “Rate of Pay” and Thus Overtime Calculations
California already has one of the most generous and employee-friendly overtime laws in the country. Employees in California earn overtime anytime they work over 8 hours in a day OR 40 hours in a week. Overtime is paid at 1.5 times the employee’s regular “rate of pay.” Calculating an Employee’s Regular Rate of Pay But,… Read More
Governor Signs SB 63 Requiring Small Businesses to Offer 12 Weeks of Family Leave
Existing California law, known as the California Family Rights Act (CFRA), requires California employers with at least 50 employees to offer an eligible employee up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period (a) for the birth of a child (aka “baby bonding leave”), the adoption of a child, or the placement of a… Read More
Harvard Business Review: Employer Vacation Policies Are “Broken”
According to a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, employer vacation policies are “broken” and “don’t work.” Analysis of Typical Employer Vacation Policies The typical employer policy allows an employee who has accrued paid time off to submit a request for vacation. That employee then has to “cram extra work into the week(s) before… Read More
San Francisco Employers May No Longer Ask About or Consider Salary History
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors today approved a new ordinance that prohibits employers from asking candidates about their salary history. The new ordinance, if signed by San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee as expected, will go into effect on July 1, 2018. Referred to as the “Parity in Pay Ordinance,” the new San Francisco law… Read More
Federal Judge Blocks New Department of Labor Overtime Rules, Including Minimum Salary Required for Exemptions
Last week, a federal judge in Texas issued a nationwide injunction preventing the U.S. Department of Labor from implementing its new overtime rules that were scheduled to go into effect on December 1, 2016. Among other things, these new overtime rules would have required employers to pay “exempt” employees at least $47,476/year beginning on December… Read More
California Minimum Wage Increases to $10.50 on January 1, 2017
For businesses with more than 25 employees, the state’s minimum wage will increase from $10.00/hour to $10.50/hour starting on January 1, 2017. [Note: Employers in San Francisco and Oakland (and many other municipalities), however, this new state minimum wage is still lower than the local minimum wage required by municipal law. For example, the San Francisco… Read More
SF Minimum Wage Increases to $13.00/hr
Today, the minimum wage for workers in the City & County of San Francisco goes up to $13.00 per hour, up from the previous $12.25 per hour. This contrasts with the state’s current minimum wage, which is $10.00 per hour. In addition to San Francisco, several other California cities have local ordinances that set the… Read More
U.S. Department of Labor Issues New Overtime Regulations
Determining when an employee gets overtime — and when an employee can be considered “exempt” from overtime — is tricky business in California. Penalties can be extraordinarily severe for an employer who improperly classifies a worker as “exempt.” In general, under current California law, every employee who works over 8 hours in a day or… Read More
