You Have the Right to Be Paid for All Hours That You Work

State law and federal law both require that an employer pay you for all the hours that you work. Most people must be paid by the hour. If you are not the boss or specially licensed, there is a good chance that you cannot be put on a salary. When you are paid by the hour, your employer cannot require you to do work but not pay you the hourly wage. That means the employer cannot require you to work from home to be a team player, and not pay you for that time. That is not team playing, that is taking advantage of a teammate. Similarly, your employer cannot require you to start working and then clock in, or to keep working after you clock out.

When an employer fails to pay the hourly wage for all hours worked, the employer violates both the California Labor Code and The United States Fair Labor Standards Act. Both of these laws have serious penalties such as payment of all wages due, payment of an equal amount of wages as a penalty, interest on your wages until you actually get paid, and payment of the lawyer fees necessary to collect that money on your behalf.

If your employer is not paying you for time worked, call our knowledgeable wage and hour attorneys in Sacramento. We offer a free consultation to discuss your claim and see what legal options may be available to you.

You Have the Right to be Paid Overtime When You Work Extra-Long Hours

If you work more than eight hours in a day, 40 hours in a week, or six days in a row in a week, the California Labor Code requires your employer to pay you 150 percent of your regular hourly wages for those extra hours. Under some circumstances, the employer may owe you 200 percent of your regular wages when the hours get very long. An employer who violates this rule owes you the wages that should have been paid, interest on the wages until you get paid, and payment of the lawyer fees necessary to collect that money on your behalf.

Federal law also requires overtime, but only after 40 hours in a week. Depending on your individual circumstances and the county that you work in, a lawyer can help you decide whether it is better to make your overtime claim under California law, federal law, or both. In federal law, you receive double the amount owed for unpaid overtime.

Just like with unpaid wages, an employer who does not pay for overtime is stealing from its employees and violating important state and federal laws. Courts take these violations very seriously. For example, in a lawsuit under the federal law, a judge has to sign off on any settlement of your unpaid wages just to make sure that you get every dime coming to you.

You Have the Right to be Paid on Time

Federal law in our part of the country currently treats late wages as unpaid wages. You are therefore entitled to the wages themselves, an additional and equal amount as “liquidated damages,” and the legal fees and costs required to collect your wages. Paying the wages eventually does not excuse an employer from the penalties of failing to pay on time.

You Have the Right to Take Meal Breaks and Rest Breaks

The California Labor Code requires that most employees be given a 30-minute meal break after five hours of work. On very long days, employees may be entitled to a second meal break. The employer must provide you with the 30-minute meal break on time. If an employee cannot take a meal break or does not take a meal break on time, the employer must pay an additional one hour of wages. This is called a premium.

Employers do have the right to punish or even fire employees who keep taking late lunch breaks. However, they must pay the premium no matter what. In most cases, the employer also owes a premium if the employee is not provided with a full 30 minutes relieved of all duty. “Working lunches“ at your desk or workstation generally do not count as lunch breaks.

Employees in California are also entitled to take a paid 10-minute rest break in an appropriate rest area (that is not a bathroom) in about the middle of every 3 1/2 to 4 hours of work. If the rest area is a meaningful distance from the workspace, then travel time to and from the rest area cannot be counted against the 10 minutes. For example if it takes four minutes to get to the rest area, so it is an eight-minute round-trip, the employer needs to provide an 18-minute rest break.

An employer does not need to ensure that employees take their rest breaks. They only have to make the rest break available. This means that winning rest break claims usually means that many employees need to act together to provide evidence that the employer pressures people not to take breaks. Just like with lunch breaks, if an employer does not provide the opportunity to take a rest break, affected employees are entitled to an extra hour of pay as a premium.

You are Entitled to Accurate Pay Stubs

Both California law and federal law require employers to maintain accurate records about how much you work, and how much you are paid. In addition, they must provide you with an accurate pay stub that explains who your employer is, how many hours you worked, how much you were paid, what your hourly rate was for each category of pay, and all withholding, such as taxes and benefits that are taken from your paycheck. California law imposes penalties against employers who fail to provide accurate pay stubs, and those penalties can add up to a very large amount of money.

You are Entitled to Complain About Your Pay Without Facing Retaliation

Both California law and federal law prohibit employers from retaliating against employees for complaining about their pay. An employee’s protection against retaliation is highest if the employee complains in writing, especially if it is done through an attorney or to a government agency. However, even an email or text to the boss or human resources can be enough to protect an employee from retaliation. If an employer retaliates, demotes, or reduces the pay of an employee in retaliation for complaining about pay violations, the employer can be subject to a wide array of financial penalties including payment of lost wages, payments for the stress associated with losing a job, a penalty in an amount equal to the lost wages, and the attorney fees made necessary to collect your damages.

You are Entitled to Collect Penalties Your Employer Owes to the State of California and Keep a Portion of Those Penalties

The California Labor Code includes a set of laws called the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). These laws allow employees whose rights are violated to collect penalties of around $200 per violation on behalf of the state. Some penalties are higher. A penalty is assessed for each and every instance when the law is violated, so the total amount can be very high. Twenty-five percent of the penalty goes to the affected employee. The other 75 percent goes to the state. The employer also has to pay the attorney fees necessary to collect the penalties.

When an employee files a claim under these laws, the employee collects the penalties due to all similar employees. So, for example, if one employee is denied a meal break, that employee can seek the penalties for every day they have been denied their break, and also seek to enforce the penalties for all other employees who were also denied their meal breaks.

Sometimes the penalties stack up and become very large. For example, an employer who has employees work through their lunches, but changes the work records to make it look like they took their lunches, will have a failure to pay wages for all hours work violation, a meal-break premium, and a bad paystub violation. There will be a PAGA penalty for each of these things for each day and pay period when the rules were broken. This can add up to thousands of dollars of real-world recovery for each employee.

And do not forget from above that the employer will also owe the unpaid wages for the working lunch, an extra hour of pay as a “premium” penalty, double the unpaid wages as a violation of the labor law and obligation to pay on time, and so on. Employees’ rights add up, and it is worth consulting with an attorney if you have an issue.

You Have the Right to Reimbursement of Your Expenses

The California Labor Code requires employers to pay for their own business expenses. If an employee is required to use their own vehicle for work, their own cellphone for work, or required to purchase materials for work, the law will usually require that the employer pay the employee back promptly for such expenses. Failure to reimburse can trigger a penalty and allow you to get your reimbursement using a lawyer that the employer needs to pay for at the end of the case.

There Can be Many Complications in Enforcing Your Rights

Although employees have substantial rights, sometimes they can be complicated to enforce.

First, different deadlines apply to different rights. Some claims must be brought within one year, other claims may have two or three years. Employees who belong to unions may have very short timelines, sometimes as little as week.

Second, some employees are exempt from some or all of these rules. A lawyer can help you figure out which rules apply to you. Even if you are exempt from some of the rules, you may not be exempt from other rules.

Third, although employees can lodge their own complaints with government agencies, those agencies do not always pursue all of your rights, nor do they prioritize your claim to get it done quickly. Having your own attorney can help you vindicate all your rights at a faster speed. Your employer will need to pay for your attorney at the end of the case, making it easier to find help. You should never have to worry about paying a lawyer out of your own pocket to collect your wages.

Fourth, employers are used to being in charge. They often do not take complaints by employees seriously because of the power difference that exists in the workplace between manager an employee. Hiring an attorney can change that power dynamic so that your employer has to listen. And if they do not, an attorney can file a lawsuit on your behalf.

Arnold Law Firm is Here to Help

The attorneys at the Arnold Law Firm are familiar with the many laws governing the simple proposition that a fair day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay. We are happy to consult with you to see how we can help if you believe your employer has not paid you fairly. There is no cost for our consultation, and when we take a case, we are paid at the end based on what we recover for you. We do not ask our clients to pay us out of their own pockets. We get that from the employer.

If you have questions or needs concerning fair pay, please contact us today.

Call 916-777-7777 to schedule a free consultation.