An Employee By Any Other Name, is Still an Employee

Classifying employees properly is imperative to avoid liability.  Ensuring employees are classified and thus paid properly should be of chief importance when starting any business.  American Homes 4 Rent, a company that owns and rents out 37,000 single family homes across the U.S., learned this lesson when it was slammed with having to pay over $400,000 due to misclassification of their employees, the LA Times reports.  The U.S. Labor Department held that American Homes misclassified employees by changing their titles in order to avoid having to pay said employees overtime.  

If you are building your business and are planning to take on employees or if you are already running a business with employees, it is advised that you contact a lawyer to ensure that you are properly classifying and paying those employees.  The attorneys at The Rad Firm, APC can make sure your employment relationships run smoothly, in accordance with both state and federal laws.   Contact us at (310) 461-3766 to determine whether you are properly classifying and paying your employees.

California's New Paid Sick Leave: What Does It Really Mean?

Effective July 1, 2015 California's newest employment game changer goes into effect. AB 1522, the "Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act" requires all employers, public and private, to provide paid sick leave to employees. 

Any employee who has worked 30 days or more within a year from the commencement of employment is entitled to paid sick leave. This new law applies to full-time, part-time or even temporary employees. Once an employee has worked the requisite 30 days within a year, they are entitled to 1 hour of paid sick leave per 30 hours worked. 

Employers are able to wait until the employee has worked 90 days to become fully entitled to use paid sick leave that has been accrued. Employers are also able to cap the total number of paid sick hours an employee may take consecutively to 24 hours, or 3 full days. 

"Employee" has also been defined within the bill to exclude certain employees, including:

• Employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement providing paid sick leave, premium overtime, and hourly rates equaling not less than 30% more than the state minimum wage.
• Employees exempt from overtime wage by statute or under the Industrial Welfare Commission.
• An employee directly employed by the state or any political subdivision, including city, county, city and county, or special district. 

If you have any questions regarding California's new paid sick leave law give The Rad Firm, APC a call at 310-461-3766.