Wage & Hour Disputes

California and federal law provides a number of protections with regard to employee pay and time worked, including but not limited to, minimum wage, overtime, meal and rest breaks, tips, what counts as time worked, when you must be paid, and the requirements for which employees may be classified as “exempt” from overtime and meal and rest breaks. 

Here are a few rules that are commonly violated: 

• As of January 1, 2023, the California minimum wage is $15.50/hour. California does not permit employers to reduce this amount for tipped employees. 
• In California, eligible employees must receive overtime pay if they work more than eight hours in a day or 40 hours in a week at one and a half times their regular rate of pay. That amount increases to double their regular rate of pay if the employee works more than 12 hours in a day or works more than eight hours on the seventh day. 
• In California, eligible employees are entitled to a 30 minute unpaid meal break after working five hours, except when the workday will be completed in six hours or less and the employer and employee both agree to waive the meal break. 
• In California, eligible employees are entitled to a ten minute paid rest break for each four hours worked or major fraction thereof, as practicable, in the middle of the four hours worked. 
• To be classified as exempt from overtime and meal and rest breaks, the employee must be paid a minimum monthly salary of no less than double the state minimum wage for full time employment. They must also meet a strict duties test where more than 50% of the employee’s duties are spent on specific tasks for the exemption.