Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
To be exempt from overtime, an employee must, among other requirements, be paid a predetermined minimum salary, currently at least $2,340 a month, regardless of the quality or quantity of hours worked. However, both federal and California law permit you to dock an exempt employee’s salary under certain circumstances without losing the worker’s exempt status. […]
Under the state and federal family and medical leave laws, you must continue health insurance for employees who are out on leave. But do you know the rules for how much of their premiums you can require employees to pay while they’re off?
A recent ruling illustrates that cutting corners in meeting your notice obligations under federal COBRA—the health insurance continuation law—can mire you in an expensive lawsuit and put you on the hook for someone’s medical bills. We’ll explain what happened and review some simple measures that would have kept this new case from ever reaching the […]
A new bill introduced in the state Legislature would expand the antiharassment provisions of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) to require employers to protect workers from harassment by clients and customers. A.B. 76 is a response to a recent court ruling that employers aren’t liable under the FEHA for harassment by clients […]
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) will pay approximately $250 million in disability benefits to more than 1,700 retired state and local safety officers to settle an age-bias lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The lawsuit charged that CalPERS—following a state law adopted in 1980—linked the amount of disability benefits to […]
Former Walt Disney Co. executive Judy Denenholz, who worked for the company almost 20 years, charged she was fired for refusing to sign off on Disney’s response to an IRS audit. Denenholz claimed that the response significantly understated the company’s back-tax liability. She sued Disney under a California Labor Code provision that prohibits retaliation against […]
The U.S. Supreme Court will take up several workplace-related cases this year. In one, the court will review a Ninth Circuit ruling regarding the type of evidence a terminated employee can use to prove job discrimination when an employer has both legitimate and illegal reasons for the discharge. Other cases on the court’s docket involve […]
A group of truckers sought back overtime pay from their employer, Overnite Transportation Co. The truck drivers argued that when the state Legislature passed A.B. 60 in 1999, reinstating daily overtime—following its repeal in 1997—it abolished a previous “motor carrier” exemption from overtime for workers whose hours of service are regulated by the Department of […]
The U.S. Department of Labor has announced it will soon release new regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act to increase the salary level required for exemption from overtime, which was last updated in 1975. The new regulations will also clarify and simplify the existing complex rules regarding the types of job duties exempt workers […]
President Bush has proposed important changes to the types of retirement accounts available to American workers. The changes are designed to make retirement savings simpler and more attractive. The president proposes to create Employer Retirement Savings Accounts (ERSAs), which would streamline, consolidate, and simplify the maze of employer-sponsored plans, including 401(k), SIMPLE 401(k), 403(b), and […]