Wage & Hour & Pay Equity

Michael Trust founded Michael Trust Law, APC after more than 35 years in HR leadership across entertainment, healthcare, higher education, finance, banking, solar energy, and other industries, including managing approximately 35,000 disability and leave-of-absence cases. He holds the SPHR, PHRca, and SHRM-SCP credentials. The PHRca is a California-specific HR credential focused on California employment law and HR practice. According to HRCI’s published pass-rate statistics at https://www.hrci.org/pass-rates, the PHRca has the lowest pass rate of all HRCI credentials — 47% as of December 31, 2025, compared with 71–84% for HRCI’s other certifications — and only 293 candidates worldwide tested for it in 2025. That HR-systems background helps identify HR process issues early, which can shape legal analysis on both sides.

Employer Wage & Hour

Michael Trust Law, APC helps California employers comply with wage and hour laws and defend against wage and hour claims. We guide businesses through pay practices, classification, and litigation defense in California wage and hour matters.

Wage & Hour

California wage and hour rules are materially stricter than federal FLSA, and the California Equal Pay Act (Cal. Lab. Code §1197.5) prohibits pay disparities based on protected characteristics with a broader standard than the federal Equal Pay Act. California’s duties test for exempt classification and the ABC test for independent contractor classification under Cal. Lab. Code §2775 are also stricter than federal law.

This HR background often proves relevant to wage and hour audit work, where most exposures are present in policy, classification, and timekeeping practices well before any claim surfaces.

California Wage and Hour Compliance — Employer Counsel

California requires daily overtime (1.5x after 8 hours, 2x after 12), meal and rest break premiums (Cal. Lab. Code §226.7; Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court (2012) 53 Cal.4th 1004), specific itemized wage statement contents (Cal. Lab. Code §226), and immediate final pay for involuntary terminations with substantial waiting-time penalties for noncompliance (Cal. Lab. Code §§201-203). The California Equal Pay Act (Cal. Lab. Code §1197.5) prohibits paying less to employees of the opposite sex, or of a different race or ethnicity, for substantially similar work — a meaningfully broader standard than the federal Equal Pay Act.

Common Employer Wage and Hour Risks

The most common employer-side risks include misclassifying employees as exempt without satisfying both the California duties test and the salary-basis test; misclassifying employees as independent contractors under the ABC test codified in Cal. Lab. Code §2775 (originating from Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903); failure to compute the regular rate of pay correctly when applying overtime to non-discretionary bonuses or commissions; meal-and-rest-break records that do not reflect the Brinker timing rules; and wage statements missing one or more of the nine required Cal. Lab. Code §226 components. Whether a particular practice creates exposure depends on the workforce composition, the schedule structure, and the documentation — all fact-specific.

Joint Employer Liability for Contracted Labor

A business that brings in workers through a staffing agency or labor contractor does not automatically avoid liability for how those workers are treated. Under the common-law right-to-control test, the same framework California uses to decide who is an employer for wage purposes, a business that exercises enough control over a contracted worker’s day-to-day job can be deemed a joint employer alongside the staffing agency itself. California law goes further for wages specifically: a client business shares liability with its labor contractor for unpaid wages and for the contractor’s failure to secure workers’ compensation coverage, and a contract trying to shift that responsibility away does not work.

S.G. Borello & Sons, Inc. v. Dept. of Industrial Relations (1989) 48 Cal.3d 341; Cal. Lab. Code §2810.3.

When to Contact Us

Wage and hour audits and class-action defense both benefit from early statutory analysis and documentation review. Contact Michael Trust Law, APC.

Initial contact does not create an attorney-client relationship — see Disclaimers.

Cal. Lab. Code §510; Cal. Lab. Code §226; Cal. Lab. Code §226.7; Cal. Lab. Code §§201-203; Cal. Lab. Code §1197.5 (Equal Pay Act); Cal. Lab. Code §§2775-2787 (ABC test); Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court (2012) 53 Cal.4th 1004; Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Cal. Lab. Code §2775 codifies the ABC test for most worker-classification questions. The hirer must establish all three ABC factors to overcome the presumption of employee status; the test is materially stricter than the federal common-law test and the prior Borello multifactor test. Misclassification typically triggers retroactive wage-and-hour, expense-reimbursement, and derivative exposure.

Misclassification typically results in unpaid overtime, missed meal-and-rest break premiums (Cal. Lab. Code §226.7), waiting-time penalties (Cal. Lab. Code §203), wage-statement violations (Cal. Lab. Code §226), and derivative claims. California’s duties test for exempt classification is stricter than the federal FLSA test, particularly its ‘primarily engaged in’ requirement, which turns on actual day-to-day work rather than job title.

Cal. Lab. Code §2802 requires indemnification for necessary work expenses, and Cochran v. Schwan’s Home Service, Inc. (2014) 228 Cal.App.4th 1137 confirms this includes reasonable cell phone and remote-work expenses. The Cal. Lab. Code §2802 duty cannot be waived by agreement (Cal. Lab. Code §2804). A documented reimbursement policy reduces exposure.

Yes, the Equal Pay Act risk persists as long as wage disparities tied to sex, race, or ethnicity exist for substantially similar work. Documentation of legitimate, job-related justifications for pay differentials is the key compliance posture, and the analysis is typically a periodic audit rather than a one-time event.

Michael Trust Law, APC helps employers manage wage and hour compliance, defend against claims, and reduce liability. Contact Michael Trust Law, APC to discuss your situation.

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