From high profile cases in Hollywood to the Silicon Valley, to high-profile legislation, gender pay equity has been top of the news in the past year. On January 1, 2016, the California Fair Pay Act — widely publicized as the toughest (gender) pay equity law in the nation — became effective. Other states (Massachusetts, New Jersey,
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California Legislature
Just In Time For Flu Season! More on Sick Pay
Employers navigating the treacherous waters of California’s new Paid Sick Leave Law and its recent amendments recently received some welcome guidance from the Labor Commissioner. On the heels of an August 7, 2015 opinion letter, in October, the LC issued updated FAQs to assist employers comply with the new law.
While much of the information in the updated FAQs…
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Piece Rate in a Pickle: California Gets More Peculiar Still
The California Legislature seems intent on ending piece-rate pay as we have known it. A law effective January 1, 2016, goes beyond the previously discussed Bluford and Gonzalez decisions to mandate that employees who earn piece-rate wages be paid a special, separate rate for rest and recovery periods, as well as for all “other non-productive time.” Further, that rate will…
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What the Doctor Ordered? AB 304’s Cure For Sick Pay Law
By Dana L. Peterson and Christopher Im
Just weeks before California’s Paid Sick Leave Law fully takes effect on July 1, 2015, the California Legislature has formulated amendments to what is officially known as the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 (a frequent subject of our blogs).
The proposed amendments, appearing in Assembly Bill 304, would treat some of the Paid Sick Leave Law’s worst maladies. To read the full text of the proposed amendments, click here.
The amendments should be chicken soup for the soul of employers who have found cold comfort in the FAQs issued by the Labor Commissioner. (See CA Paid Sick Leave Update). And AB 304, first introduced in February 2015, now has an “urgency clause” (added on June 2), which would make the amendments effective as soon as Governor Brown signs the bill. Without the urgency clause, the amendments would not be effective until January 2016.
The key proposed amendments include:
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California Legislative Update: 2015 Employment Legislation To Watch
By Kristina Launey and Christina Jackson
Having reconvened this past Monday from Spring Recess, the California Legislature will return its attention to the employment-related bills that were introduced for this 2015-16 Legislative Session. These bills—covering topics including paid leave rights, hours of work, and payment of wages—will now be heard in committees, as their authors attempt to carry them through the process to the Governor’s desk for approval. While it is too early to tell which bills will make the cut, those that do will be sure to affect employers doing business in California.
The proposed bills we’re watching most carefully are:
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Not an April Fool’s Joke! Possible Legislative Clarification to CA Paid Sick Leave Law To Come: Proposed Amendments Introduced
On March 26, 2015, Assembly Member Lorena Gonzalez – the author of California’s Paid Sick Leave law, the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 (the “Act”) – introduced amendments to that law. The vehicle for those amendments, Assembly Bill 304, was re-referred to the Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment to be set for hearing.
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CA Legislature and Governor Pass More Employment Laws: End of 2014 Session Summary
By Kristina Launey, Dana Howells, and Christina Jackson
The California Legislature adjourned in the wee hours of the morning on August 30, in advance of the official August 31 close of the 2013-14 Legislative Session. It sent a number of employment-related bills to Governor Brown for consideration by his September 30, 2014 deadline to sign or veto the …
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Increasing the CA Minimum Wage Makes A Big Splash, But What Are The Ripple Effects?
By Maya Harel and Colleen M. Regan
As previously reported here one of the pieces of 2013 California legislation that made a big splash is Assembly Bill 10 (AB 10). AB 10 amends Labor Code § 1182.12 and raises California’s minimum wage in two steps over 18 months, from $8.00 to $9.00 per hour (on July 1, 2014) and then …
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California Legislature Eliminates “Sexual Desire”
Yesterday Governor Brown signed into law SB 292, by Senator Ellen Corbett, which amended the definition of harassment because of sex in the Fair Employment and Housing Act to specify that sexually harassing conduct need not be motivated by sexual desire.
The stated intent of the bill is to overturn the decision in Kelley v. Conco Companies, 196 …
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