Employment Law

 

Wage and Hour

California has a wide range of laws pertaining to the payment of wages, including the amount of minimum wage, the timing of wage payments, commissions, overtime, vacation, rest periods, meal periods, time keeping requirements, itemized wage statements, penalties for failing to provide or comply with the foregoing, and a host of other detailed rules relating to “working conditions” of employees.


The starting point is to determine whether an employee is “exempt” or “non-exempt”. Exempt employees, as the name implies, are not subject to the vast majority of wage and hour laws. Most notably these include California laws pertaining to payment of overtime and the requirement to provide rest and meal periods.

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There are three exemptions under California law: Executive, Administrative and Professional, each with their own separate detailed requirements.  And simply paying an employee a salary does not magically make them exempt. Both the “salary” test and the “duties” test must be met, otherwise an employee is non-exempt. Under California law, the “duties” test requires the employee be “primarily engaged” in exempt duties, including exercise of “independent discretion and judgment.” The employee must engage in exempt duties more than 50% of the time, based on actual measurement of time for a given task.  The employee must also make at least twice the applicable minimum wage.

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Many employers, including large employers, misclassify their employees as exempt when they are really non-exempt. The consequences are potentially devastating to the employer.  Additionally, a recent opinion by the California Supreme Court makes it nearly impossible to legally classify a worker as an “independent contractor” if that worker performs any tasks that involve an employer’s business.

Misclassifying employees as exempt, as an independent contractor, and/or failing to follow wage and hour rules for non-exempt employees can cost an employer a great deal of money.

 
 

Discrimination and Wrongful termination

If you have been laid off or fired recently, and believe that you may have lost your job for an unlawful reason, you may have a right to bring a claim for wrongful termination against your former employer. Legal remedies that may be available to you include money damages and, if you haven’t been officially terminated yet, negotiation for an appropriate severance package that includes adequate compensation.


The term “wrongful termination” means that an employer has fired or laid off an employee for illegal reasons. Illegal reasons for termination include:​

  • Firing in violation of federal and state anti-discrimination laws;

  • Firing for reporting sexual harassment or other unlawful acts by an enployer;

  • Firing in violation of oral and written employment agreements;

  • Firing for opposing violation of labor laws; and

  • Firing in retaliation for the employee’s having filed a complaint or claim against the employer.

Some of these violations carry statutory penalties, while others can result in the employer’s payment of damages based on the terminated employee’s lost wages and other expenses. Certain wrongful termination cases may raise the possibility that the employer pay punitive damages to the terminated employee, while other cases may carry the prospect of holding more than one wrongdoer responsible for damages.