Employee Rights: What to Do If Your Employer Violates Wage and Hour Laws

Common Wage and Hour Law Violations in California

All employers doing business in the state of California are bound by law to comply with laws governing meal and rest breaks, minimum wage, overtime compensation, expense reimbursement, and off-site work pay.

Any employer who knowingly or unwittingly violates wage and hour laws is subject to a complaint filed with the California Labor Commissioner’s Board and could face significant fines and penalties as a result.

These are among some of the most common violations committed by employers with respect to wage and hour laws:

Minimum Wage

The current minimum wage in California is $16.00 an hour (higher in some cities and counties throughout the state) and employers who fail to comply with this law are subject to fines and penalties that could total as much as $1,000 for each violation at the state level and higher if violations of federal minimum wage law are committed.

Federal labor code is very strict when it comes to minimum wage laws and employers are bound by law to pay employees for all hours worked, even if those hours are not directly associated with the primary job duties of the employee. As long as that employee is performing work duties for the employer in an official capacity, he or she must be paid for every hour worked.

Meal and Rest Breaks

All California employers must allow employees duty-free, uninterrupted meal breaks for every number of hours worked. If the employer fails to comply with this law by not providing a meal break at the designated time or urges an employee not to take his or her meal break, that employer is committing a wage and hour law violation.

Paid rest breaks lasting ten minutes of duty-free, uninterrupted rest time must be offered during every workday and any employer failing to allow an employee to take his or her rest break is committing a wage and hour law violation.

If an employer is found to have violated an employee’s rights by failing to provide meal breaks under the law, the employee is entitled to one hour’s worth of wages for each day a meal break was not provided. Under California law, any employee who clocked out but was required by their employer to remain on the job site while taking a meal break so he or she would be available to perform their job duties has not been given an adequate meal break and, therefore, must be paid for their time while they were taking a meal break on-site and receive a premium of one hour’s worth of wages.

Employees who were denied rest breaks may also be entitled to one hour of premium pay at their current wage for each day their employer failed to provide them with rest breaks that were due.

Premium pay is only available under California law. Federal labor law does not offer this reward as compensation should an employer be found to have violated an employee’s rights to meal and rest breaks.

Overtime Compensation

Employers in California are mandated to pay employees overtime compensation at a rate of 1.5 times their regular wage for work performed after eight hours on a workday or forty hours in a regular work week. This is valid whether or not you must first get approval to work longer than the standard eight hours in a day. If you worked overtime hours, you are entitled to be compensated for that time at 1.5 times the normal rate.

If an employer fails to pay overtime compensation, that is a violation of the law and could subject the employer to a fine of $1,000 per violation.

Expense Reimbursement

Under California law, employers are required to reimburse their employees for expenses incurred in the performance of their job duties. This may include mileage, cell phone bills, gasoline costs, and other employment-related expenses that may be eligible for reimbursement.

Misclassification of Employees as Independent Contractors

Perhaps the most common violation is an employer’s willingness to misclassify an employee as an independent contractor in order to avoid compliance with the California labor laws and their requirements to offer minimum wage, rest breaks, overtime compensation, pay taxes on payroll, and other protections and benefits to which employees may be entitled and independent contractors are not.

Have You Been the Victim of a Wage and Hour Violation?

If one or more of the above examples has happened to you in the workplace, your employer may have committed a wage and hour violation. Now you may be wondering what to do next. Fortunately you have a number of options at your disposal, but the one thing you should never do is fail to protect yourself and fight for your rights.

The following are some of the options you should consider to ensure you get the compensation you deserve:

Understand Your Rights

If you suspect your employer has violated your rights under the law, it helps to read up on the basics of California Labor Law to determine when and how your employer committed a wage and hour violation. From there, you can start to collect information and gather evidence to present at the appropriate time.

Gather All Applicable Information

Any and all records and documents, emails, pay stubs, letters, timecards, related to hours worked during which you were not paid the proper wages will be valuable in proving your case either to your employer directly, when filing a claim with the California Labor Commissioner, or in a court of law.

Contact Your Employer to Rectify Any Violations

Many times, a violation may have occurred as a mistake and speaking directly with your employer about the violation could resolve the issue. However, if your employer does not agree with your assessment or continues to deny you the wages owed, your next step is to file a claim with the Labor Commissioner’s Office.

File a Wage Claim

All of that information and documentation you collected is going to be important when you decide to file a claim for wage theft with the Labor Commissioner. Filing a claim puts into motion an investigation into whether or not you are eligible to receive the wages and possible benefits that you believe were withheld or not paid to you when owed. After you file a wage claim, the Labor Commissioner’s Office will typically contact both you and your employer to make an attempt at resolution. Should that fail, the next step is often a hearing on the matter so all of your evidence and documentation can be reviewed and the Labor Commissioner’s Board will render a decision on the merits of your claim.

When you file, be sure to submit as much detailed information as possible so your claim can be reviewed in full. That means including all of your employer’s information as well as the information of other parties who may be able to offer some insight, evidence, or testimony as to the merits of your claim. These might include managers, supervisors, co-workers, any individuals who currently work for your employer.

Submit all of the information, paperwork, and other forms of documentation you’ve gathered to support your claim. The more detailed and specific you are with respect to hours worked, wages owed, and any other violations that have been committed by your employer, the better prepared you are to file an accurate claim that presents your case in full.

Act Quickly

The law limits the amount of time you have to file a claim to support your case of a wage and hours violation:

You have one year from the date of a violation when your employer issued a check that was declined due to insufficient funds or failed to provide you with a copy of payroll records.

You have two years from the date when your employer made a verbal agreement to compensate you more than minimum wage and failed to do so.

You have three years from the date when your employer committed one of the following violations:

• Minimum wage
• Overtime compensation
• Illegal deductions from compensation
• Unpaid expense reimbursement
• Unpaid rest and meal breaks
• Sick leave

You have four years from the date when your employer violated wage and hour laws while you were under contract.