California Labor Board Complaint Lawyer for Employers

Rest breaks

If an employee works over three and a half hours in a day, they must receive a paid ten-minute rest period. If the employee works more than six hours in a day, they should receive a second ten-minute rest period. Rest periods are not to be combined with meal breaks or other rest breaks. A rest break must be duty free and uninterrupted. This means that if an employee is in the middle of their break, an employer cannot ask them to do a task, such as sweeping the floor of a shop or plugging data into an Excel sheet. They must be left undisturbed for this ten-minute period.

Meal breaks

An employer must give their employees a thirty-minute unpaid meal break if they work over five hours in a day. If an employee works more than ten hours in a day, they should receive a second unpaid thirty-minute meal break. These meal periods should be duty free and uninterrupted. An employee is allowed to start their meal break no later than the end of the fifth hour of their shift.

Overtime

An employer must pay their employees time and a half if they work:

• Over eight hours in a day
• Over forty hours in a week
• Seven consecutive days in a work week

An employer must pay their employee double time if they work:

• Over twelve hours in a day
• Over eight hours on the seventh consecutive day in a work week

Last Paycheck

If an employee has been laid off or terminated, he or she has the right to get their final wages on their last day of work or upon termination. If an employee resigns from their position, he or she has the right to get their final wages within seventy-two hours after their final day at work. That said, if they gave their employer at least 72 hours’ notice of their departure, the employee should receive their final paycheck on the last day of work.

A final paycheck needs to include any unpaid, accrued vacation time, but not sick leave compensation.

Tips

Under the law, a supervisor or manager is not permitted to take from the tip pool or from an employee’s tips. This is legally regarded as tip theft.

Driving mileage reimbursements

If an employee must drive from the workplace to a job site, their employer must pay them a mileage reimbursement according to the standard mileage rate. This rate, as of January 2023, is 65.5 cents per mile. If an employee files a claim related to driving mileage reimbursement with the Labor Board, he or she is entitled to an award of lawyer’s fees.

Deductions

An employer is not allowed to deduct money from an employee’s paycheck unless this has been agreed in writing. Even if an employer loans a worker money, he or she cannot deduct money from the employee’s paycheck without their written consent. If this occurs, an employee is legally permitted to recover the deducted amount.

Retaliation

If an employee complains to their employer or the labor board about a wage violation, under the law, their employer may not retaliate against them. Retaliation takes many forms: a reduction in work hours, a pay cut, a demotion, a suspension, firing, and so on. If an employee suspects they are suffering from retaliation, they may file a complaint with the labor board, leading to further consequences for the employer.