On July 27, 2022, the Director of California’s Department of Finance sent a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom and other state officials, noting that the Department had determined poor economic conditions necessitated expedited...more
Several years ago, the payment structure for numerous salon and spa employees was turned on its head, as these salons and spas faced liability for paying employees a commission when they were not involved in sales. ...more
I have many clients that want to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and pay workers properly, especially for overtime. However, I have found that even the most well-intentioned employers sometimes will not...more
With the new year will come new laws that affect California employers. The following are the “A to Z” of changes in the laws that may affect your business in 2022. Under existing law, if a COVID-19 outbreak occurs at a...more
As with every new year, California rolled out new laws affecting the workplace beginning January 1, 2022. Below is a summary of some of the most relevant changes that may affect your business. As always, please reach out to...more
On January 1, 2023, Senate Bill 62, the Garment Worker Protection Act, will become effective, making California the first state to ban piece rate pay for garment workers. SB 62 prohibits any “employee engaged in the...more
On September 27, 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law the Garment Worker Protection Act, which makes California the first state to ban piece rate pay for garment workers, requiring instead that they be paid...more
A piece-rate plan is a wage payment system where an employee is paid a fixed amount for each unit produced or action completed. Piece rate is used in many different industries, including automobile repair, trucking,...more
On November 5, 2020, the Washington Supreme Court altered a 60-year provision of Washington’s Minimum Wage Statute when it issued its decision in Martinez-Cuevas v. DeRuyter Brothers Dairy. The court held that the...more
Last year, the Washington Supreme Court considered the following certified question: “Does the Washington Minimum Wage Act require non-agricultural employers to pay their piece-rate employees per hour for time spent...more
Over a decade has passed since an appellate court in California ruled that employers could not average pay for productive activity to include unpaid non-productive activity in meeting their minimum wage obligations. That...more
On September 5, 2019, the Washington Supreme Court held that non-agricultural employees do not have to be paid a separate hourly rate for time spent on non-piece-rate activities. Further, workweek averaging, as described in...more
On September 5, 2019, the Washington Supreme Court issued a huge win for all non-agricultural employers who pay commission or piece-rate pay to their employees in Washington state. In a 6-3 decision, the Washington Supreme...more
In the matter of Jimenez-Sanchez v. Dark Horse Express, Inc. (F072599), the court confirmed that employees paid on a piece-rate basis required additional, separate compensation for rest breaks. The defendant in the case was...more
A recent California Court of Appeal decision upheld the state’s complex rules for compensating piece-rate employees. In Nisei Farmers League v. California Labor & Workforce Dev. Agency, 2019 Cal.App. LEXIS 10 (Cal.Ct.App....more
In Nisei Farmers League vs. California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, California’s Fifth Appellate District confirmed the constitutional validity of Labor Code section 226.2, a recently enacted law providing that...more
Rejecting an argument that the use of the phrase “other nonproductive time” rendered the statute unconstitutionally vague, a California Court of Appeal recently upheld the state’s law regarding compensation of piece-rate...more
Following a line of recent federal and state court cases, California employers are required to compensate employees receiving commissions and piece rates separately for non-productive time and rest periods. In a recent...more
Many California employers are familiar with the three-headed monster of medical leave questions: family medical leave (state and federal), disability leave and accommodation, and workers’ compensation leave. The wage and hour...more
The past month was full of minimum wage, tip, and overtime activity: amendments; annual rate adjustments; ballot measure battles; legal challenges; and new bills. It was a September to remember....more
In yet another blow to agricultural employers, grab your stopwatches. In Carranza v. Dovex Fruit Co., the Washington Supreme Court has just held that agricultural employers are required to compensate piece-rate workers on a...more
A new addition to California law changes the definition of commission pay for licensed employees of beauty salons and barber shops. Under the new law, certain common arrangements, such as agreements to pay stylists on a...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Our mission here at Cal-Pecs is to illuminate how California employment law differs from the law that employers generally experience throughout America. In this back-to-basics piece, we provide some...more
The minimum wage is here to stay, but it has become more complicated to apply to some classes of employees. Until this century, the issue of whether employees are adequately paid at the applicable minimum wage in California...more
Last month a California appellate court held that an employer violates California law by paying inside sales employees on a draw against commission. In Vaquero v. Stoneledge Furniture LLC, the court held that such a pay...more