A common assumption among small business owners: if a worker signs an independent contractor agreement and sets their own hours, the classification is settled. Recent litigation involving spa and salon workers at a hospitality business shows how that assumption fails…
You earn a flat production bonus, say two hundred dollars for hitting a monthly output target, on top of your regular hourly pay. The bonus shows up on your check, but your overtime rate for that pay period looks the…
You clock out for a meal break, but your employer asks you to drive from one job site to another during that same window. By the time you park and actually sit down to eat, fifteen or twenty minutes of…
A lot of California employers assume that once an employee is working temporarily outside the state, California wage law stops applying to that stretch of work. That assumption is often wrong, and it can be expensive. In Sullivan v. Oracle…
A client told me what her manager said the third time she worked through lunch that week: “Nobody’s forcing you to skip lunch. That’s on you.” Wrong. That single sentence is doing a lot of work, and almost none of…
Your last paycheck did not show up when you expected it to. This catches a lot of people leaving a California job, and there is a clear, specific rule for exactly when that check is due, not just a vague…
Employers often assume that if the paycheck clears and the hourly rate is legal, the wage and hour side of the business is fine. That assumption misses most of where California claims actually come from. Misclassification is the first trap. …
If your business has San Francisco employees, the eligibility clock you have been tracking for the city’s Paid Parental Leave Ordinance is about to change, and the change arrives on a size-based schedule that is easy to miss until it…
You heard your employer mention something about a new account for your kid, and you assumed it was just another benefits email to skim past. It might be worth more than that. Since July 4, 2026, employers have been able…
You quit, or you were let go, and your last paycheck showed up late, came up short, or both. This happens often enough that California has strict, specific rules about exactly when that final check is due. Under Lab. Code…
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