Blog
Are You Getting the Full Prevailing Wage?
California and federal companies that receive contracts for public works must pay their workers the prevailing wage. (Cal. Lab. Code § 1771). The prevailing wage is usually much higher than the rate companies pay their workers for non-government contract work. The...
Top 5 Ways CA Employers Steal Employee Wages: No. 5 Not Paying Final Wages or Paying Final Wages Late
Many California employers obey the California labor laws. Unfortunately, some don't. One of the top ways dishonest employers steal time and money from their workers is not paying final wages or paying final wages late. In California, when a worker is laid off or...
Top 5 Ways CA Employers Steal Employee Wages: No. 4 Stealing Rest Breaks
Many jobs require demanding work at a fast pace or in high heat so every minute of rest time is critical to employees. California employers must provide a ten minute paid rest period for every four hours an employee works. For most workers, that means they should...
Top 5 Ways CA Employers Steal Employee Wages: No. 3 Stealing Meal Periods
Many California employers obey the California labor laws. Unfortunately, some don't. One of the top ways dishonest employers steal time and money from their workers is stealing hours. California employers must provide a 30 minute off-duty meal period for every 5 hours...
Top 5 Ways CA Employers Steal Employee Wages: No. 2 Stealing Hours
Many California employers obey the California labor laws. Unfortunately, some don't. One of the top ways dishonest employers steal time and money from their workers is stealing hours. Some employers steal substantial amounts of time and wages from their employees...
Top 5 Ways CA Employers Steal Employee Wages
No. 1 Stealing Minutes Many California employers obey the California labor laws. Unfortunately, some don't. One of the top ways dishonest employers steal time and money from their workers is by stealing minutes. Workers have a right to be paid for ALL time worked....
Top 5 Ways CA Employers Steal Employee Wages: No. 1 Stealing Minutes
Many California employers obey the California labor laws. Unfortunately, some don't. One of the top ways dishonest employers steal time and money from their workers is stealing minutes. Workers have a right to be paid for ALL time worked. Have you noticed that...
If It’s Not in Writing (and you have a copy), It Didn’t Happen
One of the first things I ask people who have experienced discrimination and retaliation at work is whether they ever complained about it to a supervisor or HR. Many times they have. They’ve called HR or the employee hotline. Unfortunately, hotline complaints...
Are You Getting the Full Prevailing Wage?
California and federal companies that receive contracts for public works must pay their workers the prevailing wage. (Cal. Lab. Code § 1771). The prevailing wage is usually much higher than the rate companies pay their workers for non-government contract work. The...
California Employees Retaliated Against for Complaining About Unpaid Wages Now Eligible to Receive a $10,000 Civil Penalty
California employees and job applicants who are the victims of discrimination or retaliation because they complained about unpaid wages are now eligible to receive a civil penalty of up to $10,000. Many times employees begin working at a job only to find that their...
Will Recording a Conversation Help My Case?
Smart phones have made it so much easier to record and secretly record conversations that many more people are doing it these days. At work, some people believe if they can record a conversation of their supervisor or others discriminating or retaliating against them...
Should I Sign an Arbitration Agreement?
These days many employers require their employees to sign an arbitration agreement to get or keep their jobs. An arbitration agreement is a contract to skip going to court and have a private judge settle any lawsuit the employee brings. In other words, the employer...
Failure to Pay for On-Call Time
On call time is time that an employer requires an employee to be ready and available to work, but for which the employer doesn’t pay the employee. For example, a limousine company might require its drivers to carry a cell phone and be available to drive within two...
Unpaid Internships
The tight job market of recent years has led to the development of an “intern economy” in which more and more workers feel they have no choice but to take an unpaid internship to gain work experience. Traditionally, internships were a way for college students to...
Misuse of Comp Time
Under a comp time program, an employer gives an employee paid time off instead of paying overtime. However, California law provides substantial protections for employers who want to offer comp time instead of paying overtime: 1) the comp time must equal the overtime...
Off the Clock Work
To start off the California Workplace Rights Blog, the blog is reviewing 10 of the most often violated employee wage and hour rights. Number 7 is another example of an employer failing to pay employees for all hours worked. Some employers make employees perform tasks...
Failure to Pay for Travel Time
Under California law, an employer must pay its employees for all hours worked. This includes time spent traveling on the employer’s business. In addition to normal business travel, this means that an employer has to pay employees for time spent traveling between job...
Employees Must Be Paid for All Hours Worked
California law requires non-exempt employees to be paid for all hours worked. With the advent of smart phones and other portable electronic devices it is easier than ever for employers to stay connected with employees after work hours. However, just because an...
Failure to Pay for Unused Vacation at Termination
California employees have no right to vacation pay. BUT if your employer offers you vacation pay, the employer cannot later take away vacation hours you’ve earned. That means that “use it or lose it” vacation policies are illegal in California. A “use it or lose...
Misclassifying Employees as Independent Contractors
To start off the California Workplace Rights Blog, the blog is reviewing 10 of the most often violated employee wage and hour rights. The number 3 on the list is misclassification of an employee as an independent contractor. Very few workers are truly independent...
Failure to Pay for Meal and Rest Period Breaks
Although there are exceptions for certain industries and positions, most California employers must provide employees with a 30 minute meal period break for every 5 hours the employee works. The meal period break must be off duty, which means the employee must be...
Failure to Pay Overtime
To kick off the California Workplace Rights Blog, the blog is reviewing 10 of the most often violated employee wage and hour rights. At the top of the list of frequently violated workplace rights is unpaid overtime. California law requires California employers to pay...
New Sick and Childcare Leave for Some Workers Affected by the Coronavirus
The Coronavirus has affected workers throughout the country, especially in California. Many workers have fallen ill, are caring for family members who have fallen ill or are caring for children whose schools have closed. Recently the Congress passed a law to provide...