Plenty of California employers believe that paying the state minimum wage keeps them compliant statewide. Payroll shows $16.90, so the box looks checked. On July 1, 2026, that belief breaks in dozens of cities at once. Local ordinances move past…
A common employer assumption: once an employee is classified as exempt, the classification holds regardless of what tasks they perform. The reality is more conditional, and a recent federal guidance document makes the limits explicit. On May 28, 2026, the…
“We always make sure everyone gets their breaks.” That is what my client’s employer said. Her pay stubs told a different story. Under California Labor Code section 226.7, when an employer fails to provide a compliant meal period, it owes…
Off-the-clock work is one of the most common and most expensive wage-and-hour problems California SMBs face, and it is frequently invisible until the demand letter arrives. The employer believes the rule is simple: if I did not authorize the work,…
Most California employers who pay team bonuses call them discretionary. The label feels right. The bonuses are not guaranteed in the offer letter, they fluctuate by quarter, and leadership decides the amount. In practice, that label does very little legal…
“It is just a tuition perk; we are fine” is what an owner says about an educational-assistance program that is operating outside §127’s structure. Internal Revenue Code §127 lets an employer exclude up to $5,250 per year in qualified educational…
“They signed the clawback, so we’re covered” is a sentence that stopped being true in California on January 1, 2026. AB 692 took effect on that date. It added Business and Professions Code §16608 and Labor Code §926, and it…
“Our 1099 paperwork is airtight” is the belief that produced an alleged $4,423,450 assessment against Hart Placement Agency. In April 2026, the California Labor Commissioner’s Office assessed Hart Placement, a Los Angeles home-care agency, and its principals $4,423,450 for the…
Belief: employees with unlimited plans aren’t incurring cost, so reimbursement is optional. California reimbursement rules focus on whether the employer required a business expense to be carried by the employee, not whether the phone bill went up. If the job…
Belief: stress, burnout, and anxiety are HR concerns, not safety concerns. In California, that boundary is no longer clean. OSHA has been extending the General Duty Clause into psychological territory, and Cal/OSHA already requires every employer with one or more…
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