Most executives operate on a comfortable assumption: the company is the employer, so the company bears the wage and hour liability. Form the entity correctly, keep your corporate housekeeping in order, and your personal assets stay out of the line of fire. In California, that assumption is wrong. Labor Code section 558.1 allows a plaintiff
As we move through 2026, it remains the perfect time for California employers to return to the fundamentals. With evolving employment laws, local ordinances, aggressive enforcement, and high volumes of wage-and-hour and PAGA claims, getting the basics right continues to separate smooth operations from costly litigation and penalty exposure.
The 2024 PAGA reforms remain central:
Most California employers think about their time and attendance records in only one context: the day a plaintiff’s lawyer subpoenas them. By then, the records are working against you — every late meal punch, every missing premium, every off-the-clock minute becomes a line item in someone else’s damages model. But the same data that creates
California employers face one of the most complex and actively enforced wage-and-hour landscapes in the country, and most of that complexity gets triggered the moment a schedule is built. Daily overtime, meal and rest break timing, premium pay obligations, split shifts, reporting time pay, and PAGA exposure all flow from how shifts are scheduled and
The financial strain caused by federal taxes on tips and overtime pay has long been a burden for service workers and the employers who support them. In a historic bipartisan move, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” has been signed into law, delivering on promises to eliminate federal income tax on tips and overtime.
Zaller
As we move deeper into 2025, it’s the perfect time for California employers to return to the fundamentals. With ever-evolving employment laws and aggressive enforcement—especially around wage and hour issues—getting the basics right can mean the difference between smooth operations and costly litigation.
As a preview to our upcoming webinar, “Wage and Hour Back
It is critical for California employers to properly calculate the regular rate of pay for an employee in order to pay the appropriate overtime pay and for premium pay for missed meal and rest breaks. Here are five issues employers must be aware of regarding calculating an employee’s regular rate of pay:
1. Employers must
As we discussed last week, makeup time provides flexibility for California employers and employees to offset time taken off within the same workweek without incurring overtime obligations. Additionally, the California Labor Code permits the use of compensatory time, commonly known as “comp time.” However, the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) imposes significant limitations on
As difficult as it is to comply with California’s daily overtime rules, it is easy to forget the one form of flexibility provided to employers — make-up time. This provision allows employers to avoid paying overtime when employees want to take off an equivalent amount of time during the same work week. This Friday’s Five