California has long has a reputation of one of the states that has most protective of employee rights, and all businesses in California or employing California resident must be aware of the laws governing overtime pay. All time during which an employee is “under the control of the employer,” including daily work duties, closing duties, uniform changes, and other job-related tasks is to be compensated at the full hourly rate. As a California employee, it is important to know your rights and laws.

California law requires not only that employees pay 1.5 times your standard hourly rate after 40 hours in a week as mandated by federal law, but also after 8 hours in a single day and on the 7th consecutive day of work and beyond. Employers must also pay double the standard hourly rate after 12 working hours in a single 24 hour period, after 8 hours on a 7th consecutive day of work, and under other circumstances such as state and national holidays. Employees on “standby” or “on call” status must also be paid for their commitment whether they are called to active duty or not.

State law provides very clear outlines of how workers are to be compensated for their time as well as a very specific set of exemptions. The major exempted classes are Executive, Administrative, Professional and Computer Professional categories, and in the view of the law these classes of employee are paid a salary for completing their job duties as opposed to an hourly rate for their time.

Exempted employees are not covered by the standard California overtime pay law, and must meet a number of requirements in order to become exempt. An Executive Exemption is only triggered when an employee both makes at least $640 weekly and meets certain requirements on level of authority within the company.

Administrative exemptions are commonly limited to the supporting fields of companies such as human resources, finance and legal departments, and even within these areas an employee must hold influence on significant matters before becoming ineligible for overtime, making this one of the most difficult exemptions to prove.

The Professional exemption only applies to employees holding advanced degrees, recognized merit in directly creative artistic pursuits, or licensure by the State of California to practice in a field such as law, engineering or accounting. This exemption also requires that an employee have a broad measure of control over day to day duties as well as a high level of operating freedom.

California is well-known for its high-tech culture, and the design of the Computer Professional exemption reflects this. Only computer programmers who play a central role in design and analysis of software are exempt from the overtime law, with most technicians who spend 50 percent or more of their time writing code for specific tasks entitled to overtime pay under California state law.

The California state overtime law is intended to limit abuses of employee freedom by companies, outlining acceptable compensation and time-tracking to protect their rights. Exemptions from this protection are extremely limited, and the burden of proving the validity of an exemption always falls on the employer.

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1. What Is minimum wage?

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the federal minimum wage for employees is $7.25 per hour. Minimum wages are set to protect workers from unfairly low compensation. The idea behind minimum wage is that employees who work should earn enough money to meet their basic needs. This federal wage was set on July 24, 2009, but many states have made their own laws regarding minimum wage. Workers are entitled to whichever is highest: the federal, state of local minimum wage. At the beginning of this year, 21 states updated their minimum wage laws, increasing their state’s minimum wage. And by the end of 2015, the other 29 states will raise their minimum wage above the federal $7.25 per hour.

2. Are all workers entitled to minimum wage?

No, unfortunately not all workers are entitled to minimum wage. If a worker is an independent contractor, a commissioned sales employee, a farm worker, a seasonal worker, or a recreational worker, he or she is not consider a legal employee. Therefore, that worker is not entitled to minimum wage.

3. What is the minimum wage in Los Angeles now?

The workers whom reside in Los Angeles know that there is no citywide minimum wage, but businesses follow California’s minimum wage law of $9 per/hour. However, there are two proposals to raise minimum wage in Los Angeles. Mayor, Eric Garcetti, has proposed to boost the minimum wage to $13.25 by 2018 and $15.25 by 2020.

4. Are employees paid minimum wage during his or her breaks?

Any qualifying employee is allotted a paid ten-minute break for every four hours they spend on the job. If an employee works less than three and a half hours, he or she is not entitled to a break.

5. Why is Los Angeles considering this idea now?

Similarly to San Francisco and Seattle, the cost of living in Los Angeles is much higher than other cities; meaning that in order for an employee to meet his or her basic needs, he or she needs to be making more money hourly. Lawmakers in cities such as San Francisco and Seattle have noted this increase in cost of living and have increase their city’s minimum wage.

If you, or someone you know, are facing legal issues in the workplace United Employees Law Group has answers, Call Today for your free and confidential case review.

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You need to understand California wage laws for tipped employees. What is a tip? You may be wondering under which conditions you will be considered to have given out a tip and the conditions where you will be deemed to have paid for your services. A tip is simply the amount a customer gives out to an employee due to exceptional services. The client has to give out the tips without any force or obligation for him to hand over the tips.

California wage laws for tipped employees

A tip is the sole property of the employee

The law in California prohibits employers from taking gratuity of any amount left to customers as tips. The section 351 of the labor laws in California stipulates that the entire amount which will be left as a tip to the employee should be handed over to the deserving employee. If the customer leaves the amount to be deducted from the credit card, then the full amount should be given to the employee upon processing.

The employer may not deduct the cost of credit card transaction from gratuities. 

If your company allows the customer to pay you a tip via a credit card, then the whole amount which will be indicated on the credit card as a tip should be given to you at the time the credit transaction will proceed and paid to you by the credit companies. The employer is not allowed to deduct any amount as processing fees.

CA employers may not credit tips against wages to meet the requirements of minimum wage laws

The tips the customers offer you should not be used to pay you to meet the minimum wage amounts set in California. The tips are a show of appreciation due to the services you offered the customer, and the amount should not be deducted from your salary or used to pay you wages.

Employers are allowed to impose a mandatory tip pooling policy. 

Sometimes the customer will leave a tip to the waiter. But, for the server to access the tip, the staff at the kitchen who cooked the food or the host at the front of the restaurant also contributed to the services. The employer can impose tip pooling where the tip will be shared equality to all staff as a way of trying to be fair to other employees who do not come into direct contact with the customers, but they had a great contribution to the company. Managers who have rights to fire and hire are not allowed to share the tips.

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