In July 2015, the Department of Labor proposed regulations that would increase the salary amount employers would need to pay for employees to qualify as exempt. If adopted, the proposal would require that employees would have to earn at least $50,440 per year in order to qualify for most exemptions in 2016. This episode
Friday’s Five: on-call time under California law
Businesses that have employees on standby waiting to be called for work must review whether this on-call time needs to be paid time. It is a v
ery fact intensive inquiry, that employers must ensure they get correct. Any mistake in not paying employees for compensable on-call time can result in potential exposure for overtime,
Five employment related bills California employers must monitor
With summer upon us, the California legislature is busy working on bills that could impact employers. Here are five employment bills being considered by the state legislature that California employers should keep an eye on:
1. SB 3 – Increase in minimum wage and indexing to inflation
Currently, California minimum wage is set to increase
Five reminders about conducting background checks under federal and California law
Based on last week’s post about the lawsuit filed against LinkedIn alleging that it violated the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), I thought it would be good to point out a few issues the arise when employers conduct background checks. This article is not comprehensive, and this area of the law is very
Five things employers must understand about LinkedIn’s job reference lawsuit
Recently, the issue raised in Sweet v. LinkedIn is whether the Reference Searches functionality offered by LinkedIn is governed by the 
regulations set forth in the FCRA. The Reference Search feature allows users who pay a fee to search for references that have worked with any other LinkedIn member. The results list common employers and
5 common questions about class actions every employer should understand
1. What is a class action?
To understand what a class action is, it is better to start with the basic individual litigation concept. Normally, parties bring their own disputes to court and litigate the case against the other parties who have been officially designated a parties and served with process and understand that they
Friday’s Five: Uber and Lyft class actions show the difficulties of classifying independent contractors in new “sharing economy”
Uber and Lyft have been sued in separate class action lawsuits in California by drivers challenging
the two companies’ classification of the drivers as independent contractors. The plaintiffs in the two cases argue that the drivers should be classified and paid as employees, which triggers many additional Labor Code provisions for the drivers than if
Personal cell phones at work: Five lessons employers should take away about expense reimbursement set forth in Cochran v. Schwan’s Home Services
Colin Cochran brought a putative class action against his employers, Schwan’s Home Service, on behalf of 1,500 customer service managers who were not reimbursed for expenses pertaining to the work-related use of their personal cell phones. He alleged causes of action for violation of Labor Code section 2802; unfair business practices under Business and Professions
Five issues employers should become familiar with under California’s Labor Code provisions regarding one day of rest every seven days of work
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has asked the California Supreme Court to clarify three 
questions pertaining to California’s little known, and very rarely litigated, laws regarding a day of rest every seven days. The case is Mendoza v. Nordstrom. The California Supreme Court’s clarification could result in a new-found focus on these laws
Five exempt employee classifications all California employers should understand
I apologize for the long post in advance, but I’ve been receiving many questions about exempt vs. non-exempt classification of employees lately. This article is the first in a series of articles to help employers tread through this technical area, hopefully in a manner that makes it at least somewhat easier for employers to understand.