One of the more painful things that happen to employees of start-ups in San Francisco and the rest of Silicon Valley is being laid off shortly before or right before they become eligible for a stock or right before an important vesting deadline. Sometimes, employers terminate an employee specifically for…
Over the past few years, a number of cases in California regarding whether various drivers are employees or independent contractors have been reviewed by appellate courts, and many of them found drivers to be in fact employees. Garcia v Seacon Logix, Inc. (2015) is a recent case on point. In…
Under California Labor Code section 203, an employer must pay a waiting time penalty on wages owed when the employer willfully fails to pay wages due under section 201 ore 202. A waiting time penalty is equal to one day’s pay fore each day that a full payment of final…
Starting from January 1, 2015, the San Francisco minimum wage increased to $11.05 / hour. This increase reflects the recognition by the authorities of a significantly higher cost of living in the city, driven up by the tech boom, the shortage of housing and the soaring prices for studios and…
Most employers are well aware that if they terminate an employee for any reason of if it’s a lay-off, they must pay that employee’s wages (which includes vacation and sick time if applicable) in full immediately upon discharge. But, what if an employee works for a certain company on per…
To qualify for the administrative exemption from overtime compensation requirement an employee must be primarily engaged in a work of a type that is “directly related to management polices or general business operations.” This requirement of course must be interpreted as it is inherently vague. In one sense, every type…
In it recent decision, filed in November 6, 2008, the 9th Circuit clarified an important point of California Overtime Law. In that case, the issue was whether Oracle employees, who are not residents of California, are entitled to the protections and privileges of California overtime compensation laws, if they work…
One exemption from overtime compensation under Fair Labor Standards Act is known as the “Outside Salesperson Exemption.” This exemption permits an employer to not pay overtime as otherwise required under California law, but only if a particular worker (a) has the primary duty of (a) making “sales” or (b) obtaining…
Under FLSA an employee will be considered to be paid on a “salary basis” and thus exempt for the purposes of overtime compensation, if the employee regularly receives each pay period on a weekly, or less frequent basis, a predetermined amount constituting all of part of the employee’s compensation, which…
The Supreme Court has held that time spent waiting for work is compensable if the waiting time is spent “primarily for the benefit of the employer and his business.” Armour & Co. v. Wantock (1944). Whether the time spent predominantly for the employer’s benefit depends on the specific circumstances of…