Terminating an employee is one of the hardest things a business does, and it is almost certainly the most legally scrutinized decision you will make in the workplace. It is also one of the few decisions that triggers immediate legal obligations — the clock starts running the moment you end the relationship. Yet how to
California’s Wage and Hour Rules on Electronic Time Records and Pay Stubs: Five Things Employers Need to Know
California employers have extensive obligations under the Labor Code to create and maintain accurate time records and pay stubs. The Labor Code itself doesn’t prescribe a specific format or technology, but the way employers handle these records has only grown more important — particularly after the 2024 Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) reform, which ties
Five Documents Every California Employer Should Have Pre-Approved by Counsel
California employers face constant pressure to make personnel decisions quickly. Terminations, separations, performance issues, and new hires often cannot wait for a lawyer’s calendar. The most effective way to handle these routine but high-risk situations is to have a core set of documents drafted, reviewed, and approved by employment counsel in advance. When the situation
Friday’s Five: How to Lean Into AI and Build a Competitive Moat
Five AI Strategies California Employers Should Be Executing Right Now
AI is not coming to your workplace. It is already there. Your employees are using it — on personal accounts, on free tools, and in ways your current policies almost certainly do not address. The California employers who are winning the next decade are not
What California Law Requires in Your Job Postings
Posting a job opening sounds straightforward — but in California, it comes with a growing list of legal requirements that many employers overlook. From pay scale disclosures to salary history prohibitions, the rules around job postings have evolved significantly in recent years and continue to be refined by legislation, agency guidance, and litigation. Getting these
Five Things California Employers Need to Understand About At-Will Employment
California is technically an at-will employment state. But practically speaking, that designation comes with so many asterisks that employers who treat at-will as a blank check to terminate anyone at any time are setting themselves up for costly litigation.
Here are five things every California employer needs to understand about the at-will doctrine:
1. At-Will
Five Things Every Employer Needs to Know About the LWDA’s Proposed PAGA Regulations
On February 6, 2026, the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to adopt the first-ever set of formal regulations governing PAGA’s administrative procedures. That sentence alone should get the attention of every California employer.
Since PAGA was enacted in 2004, and even after the landmark 2024 reforms, there
Five items to review for local minimum wage and paid sick leave laws
In this Friday’s Five post, I discuss five items that SoCal employers should review to ensure compliance with the minimum wage and paid sick leave increases in many cities and counties that took effect on July 1, 2016 or soon thereafter.
Los Angeles area employers: checklist to comply with July 1 minimum wage and paid sick leave laws
Next week Los Angeles employers need to comply with new minimum wage and paid sick leave requirements. I have written about the new laws a lot recently, but wanted to provide five items in today’s Friday’s Five to review in ensuring your company is ready for the new laws for next week’s deadlines:
- Understand
Gary Vaynerchuk on the workplace: a 2016 perspective
If you know Garyvee, you may be asking yourself how could an employment law blog rely upon advice from someone who has not only admitted, but takes pride in, the fact that he checked out of school in the third grade, does not read books, and uses language that makes most standup comedian’s performances seem