white collar exemptions

California’s minimum wage will be increasing on January 1, 2023 to $15.50 per hour. This Friday’s five reviews how the increase impacts California’s employers and addresses considerations for how employers deal with the patchwork of local jurisdictions that have their own minimum wage requirements:

1. White Collar Exemptions – Salary Requirement Tied to State Minimum

This Friday’s five article covers five reminders about the California minimum wage increase and its impact upon exempt employees:

1. As of January 1, 2020, the minimum wage in California increased from $12.00 per hour to $13.00 per hour for employers with 26 or more employees (the increase is from $11.00 per hour to $12.00

In 2015 the Department of Labor (DOL) proposed increasing the salary employees must receive in order to be classified as exempt.  The DOL finalized the rules and the changes are pending before the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.  If approved, it is likely that the final rules would take effect late summer

To qualify as an exempt employee, an employee must be “primarily engaged in the duties that meet the test of the exemption” and “earns a monthly salary equivalent to no less than two times the state minimum wage for full-time employment.” Labor Code section 515.  This forms the two part test the employees must meet

1.     It does not matter if you are a start-up, mom and pop business, or a fortune 500 company, employment laws cannot be ignored. 

While different laws do apply to larger employers, for the most part, every employer has to comply with roughly the same laws in California.  California’s paid sick leave requirement that took