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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This law suit was originally filed in August of 2010 in the California Superior court, but was later removed to federal court in Sept of 2010. The employees alleged that Home Depot’s vacation policy allowed the employees to accrue vacation time and to roll over any unused vacation time to the next year without limits. The issue arose when Home Depot failed to pay out all of the unused vacation time that had accrued over the years.
The motion seeking preliminary approval of the settlement was filed in the US District court for the Central District of California and stated that the ex-employees are to receive compensation for the unpaid vacation time, “as well as additional payment for interest and waiting time penalties.” The class was certified to include roughly 1300 former Home Depot employees terminated since August of 2006.
As predicted by the plaintiffs, Home Depot has agreed to pay out $1.6 million to settle the class action. But Despite agreeing to settle in mediation, Home Depot maintains that they had no part in any wrong doing and are not accepting any liability for the claims.
Labor law is complex; if you have any questions regarding your employment it is recommended that you contact United Employees Law Group. We can help you understand your rights, and in many cases will review your situation without charge.

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California State has made strict rules to provide a number of amenities to the employee, especially when it comes to vacation pay rules. There is no law in California that states that the employer has the choice to utilize any policy that tells the employee to take the vacation pay or leave it altogether. In fact, once you earn your vacation pay there is no way that the employer can take it away from you.
The prominent case concerning vacation pay rules violations is Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Wage and Hour Litigation, which was filed in northern California. This case is separate from the one that was filed against Walmart in 2008 in which the settlement of 63 federal and state class-action lawsuits suspected Walmart of violations of wage and hour laws.
These are the CA Labor Law Regulations pertaining to the case above:
California Labor Code Section 227.3:
When the contract takes place between the employer and employee, they can decide the providing of the vacation timing to the employee. If the employee is terminated before he/she could avail his vacation time, then the employer would be responsible for paying the employee with the vacation time pay in respect of the employee’s hard work and time he served to the employer. But if the employee has already used up his vacation time then the employer will not give the penalty payment of vacation time. The role of the Labor Commissioner is of vital importance as he/she has to make sure to apply all the principles that are fair and on the basis of equality.
What are the Probation Period Caps?
Probation:Sometimes the employers implement a probationary period for the employee which means that the employee is not entitled to any vacation in that period, and once that time frame is crossed he/she can earn vacation time as per the policy. The probationary period can be any time that is decided by the employer, whether it is 1 month, 1 year or so. This law is legal for the employers to enact the probation period for the employee.
Caps: As the employer is not allowed to take away the vacation time from the employee, he can put a cap on vacation time that you can earn without using any. It is legal for the employer to put a cap on vacation time since he cannot take away what is yours.
The other important policy that is legal for the employer is to cash out the vacation pay after a certain time to avoid excessive payouts.
Vacation Policy Issues:
How to use vacation?
Vacation time is regarded with many names such as floating holidays, paid time-off (PTO) or gift holidays, but whatever the name may be, if the employee is leaving the employment he/she should be paid his vacation hours at the time of departing from employment. The employee is allowed to use vacation any way he wants for his personal reasons. There are no restrictions on the employee as to how he has to use the vacation time.
Which holidays are regarded as vacation time?
There is a clear difference between the sick and holiday pay times. They are not included as the vacation time. The sick leaves are given when you are actually sick, while the vacation time is solely up to you how you spend them. Sick leave hours, if not availed by the employee, are not required to be paid out by the employer at the time the employment ends. If according to some PTO policies, the sick leave and vacation time are together, then they are then considered as the vacation time and cannot be challenged.
The vacation time provided to the employee is in equal dividend of the vacation every month and week wise. For example, if the employee is given the total of vacation days every year, he/she would be entitled to ½ vacation day every month and 1/8 of the vacation day every week. There is no policy that shows that the employee earns the lump sum of vacation every year; it is the pro-rata fashion in which he earns and avails it. Each pay period you work will help you earn your vacation time gradually.
The main problem that occurs is that the employers sometimes do not pay vacation period properly when the employment contract ends. This is when you should contact your Los Angeles Employment Lawyer and get your vacation pay.

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