Tag Archives: California wage-hour law

September 13, 2019

California Supreme Court Holds That Employees Cannot Recover Allegedly Unpaid Wages in Lawsuits Brought Under PAGA

By Kevin Sullivan of Epstein Becker & Green

We have frequently written about California’s Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”), a unique statute that allows private individuals to file suit seeking “civil penalties” on behalf of themselves and other “aggrieved employees.”

Read more

Posted in News | North America
Read full article
January 8, 2019

California Court of Appeal Holds That An Employee’s “Imprecise Evidence” Can Provide a Basis for Damages When an Employer Does Not Keep Accurate Records of Hours Worked – But That an Employer is Not Liable for Missed Meal Periods of Which It Was Unaware

By Kristin M. Halsing of Epstein Becker & Green

On December 12, 2018, in Furry v. East Bay Publishing, LLC, the California Court of Appeal held that if an employer fails to keep accurate records of an employee’s work hours, even “imprecise evidence” by the employee “can provide a sufficient basis for damages.”

Read more

Posted in News | North America
Read full article
October 24, 2018

California Court of Appeal Rejects Dynamex’s “ABC” Test for Independent Contractors for Claims That Do Not Arise Under a Wage Order

By Kevin D. Sullivan of Epstein Becker & Green

In April 2018, we wrote about the California Supreme Court’s decision in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court, which had clarified the standard for determining whether workers in California should be classified as employees or as independent contractors for purposes of the wage orders adopted by California’s Industrial Welfare Commission (“IWC”).

Read more

Posted in News | North America
Read full article
May 14, 2018

California Court of Appeal Concludes That There Is No Wage Statement Violation When an Employee’s Paystubs Accurately Reflect the Wages That Employee Was Paid

By Kevin D. Sullivan of Epstein Becker & Green

When California employees bring lawsuits alleging minimum wage, overtime, meal period or rest period violations, they typically bring additional claims that are purportedly “derivative” of these substantive claims.  One of these derivative claims is for wage statement (i.e., paystub) violations, alleging that because the employee was paid not all wages he or she allegedly earned, the wage statements he or she was provided were not accurate.

Read more

Posted in News | North America
Read full article
May 25, 2017

Clarity on California’s “Day of Rest” Provisions – Employment Law This Week Continue Reading…

By Epstein Becker & Green, P.C. of Epstein Becker & Green

Featured on Employment Law This Week: The California Supreme Court has clarified the state’s ambiguous “day of rest” provisions.

The provisions state that, with certain exceptions, employers will not cause “employees to work more than six days in seven.” The state’s high court addressed three questions about this law that had been certified by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The court determined that employees are entitled to one day of rest per workweek. So, every Sunday marks the beginning of a new seven-day period. Additionally, the court clarified that employees who work six hours or less during each day of the week are not entitled to a day of rest and that employees can choose not to take the day of rest if they are fully aware of the entitlement.

Posted in North America
Read full article
April 6, 2016

California’s “Suitable Seating” Wage Rule: More Seats – and More Class Actions – Are Likely

By Epstein Becker & Green, P.C. of Epstein Becker & Green

Our colleague Michael Kun, attorney at Epstein Becker Green, has a post on the Wage & Hour Defense Blog that will be of interest to many of our readers in the hospitality industry: “Clarification of California’s Obscure ‘Suitable Seating’ Wage Rule Likely to Lead to More Employers Providing Seats – and to More Class Actions Against Those Who Don’t.”

Posted in North America
Read full article
April 5, 2016

Clarification of California’s Obscure “Suitable Seating” Wage Rule Likely to Lead to More Employers Providing Seats – and to More Class Actions Against Those Who Don’t

By Michael S. Kun

Clarification Of California’s Obscure “Suitable Seating” Wage Rule Likely To Lead To More Employers Providing Seats – And To More Class Actions Against Those Who Don’tWe have written previously about California’s obscure wage rule pertaining to “suitable seating,” which requires that some employers provide some employees with “suitable seating” in some circumstances if the “nature of the work reasonably permits it” – and exposes employers to significant penalties if they do not do so.

Faced with a dearth of guidance on the obscure rule and with a wave of class actions following the discovery of the rule by the plaintiffs’ bar, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals threw up its hands last year and asked the California Supreme Court to answer a few questions relating to the law.

Posted in North America
Read full article
April 1, 2016

California Minimum Wage Increases Will Affect Exempt Salaries, Too

By Kevin Sullivan of Epstein Becker & Green

Kevin Sullivan

On March 31, 2016, the California legislature passed a bill that will gradually increase the state minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2022. Governor Jerry Brown is expected to sign the bill on April 4, 2016. This increase will impact employers statewide. Not only will it affect the wages of many non-exempt employees, but it will also result in an increase in the minimum salary paid to employees who qualify for most overtime exemptions.

The bill calls for the minimum wage to increase to $10.50 per hour effective January 1, 2017, $11.00 per hour effective January 1, 2018, and then an additional one dollar per hour each year until it reaches $15 per hour effective January 1, 2022. (For employers with 25 or fewer employees, each of the minimum wage increases would start a year later such that $15 per hour minimum would not go into effect until January 2023.)

Posted in North America
Read full article
March 21, 2016

Even Betty White Can Be Sued for Alleged Wage-Hour Violations

By Michael S. Kun of Epstein Becker & Green

shutterstock_227118130It is often said that no employer is immune from a wage-hour lawsuit. That no matter how diligent an employer is about complying with wage-hour laws, there is nothing to prevent an employee from alleging that it did not comply in full with the law, leaving it to the attorneys and the court to sort things out. Perhaps the best evidence that no employer is immune from a wage-hour lawsuit came on Thursday, March 17, 2016. That is the date that history will always reflect that a wage-hour lawsuit was filed against Betty White.

Posted in North America
Read full article
March 11, 2016

Taco Bell Employees Likely Are Not Celebrating Their “Victory” in California Meal and Rest Period Class Action

By Michael S. Kun of Epstein Becker & Green

Michael Kun

More than a few media sources have reported on the March 10, 2016 wage-hour “victory” by a class of Taco Bell employees on meal period claims in a jury trial in the Eastern District of California.  A closer review of the case and the jury verdict suggests that those employees may not be celebrating after all — and that Taco Bell may well be the victor in the case.

The trial involved claims that Taco Bell had not complied with California’s meal and rest period laws. The employees sought meal and rest period premiums and associated penalties for a class of employees that reportedly exceeded 134,000 members.

Posted in News | North America
Read full article