Employment Law Articles

Learn and discover the latest useful employment law articles for practical information, DIY, and ideas from a network of leading business and corporate lawyers.

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What Does Basic Pay Mean?

Basic pay, also referred to as basic salary or base pay, means a fixed amount that an employer agrees to pay an employee in exchange for the employee's time, services, and work. In other words, base pay is the hourly wage or monthly salary a company pays an employee for working.

Employee Development Plan – with examples

What is an employee development plan? An employee development plan is a collaborative, actionable list of steps that an employee completes to meet their desired growth plan

What is a Pay Stub?

A pay stub provides a record of an employee’s wages and helps them understand their taxes, contributions, and deductions. A pay stub is what an employer gives to employees with their paycheck, showing the gross pay, itemized deductions, and net pay amount.

Succession Planning

Succession planning is the process of identifying the critical positions within your company and developing action plans for successors and employees to assume those positions. Succession planning involves preparing potential leaders and high performers for possible future roles.

What is Retro Pay?

The meaning of retro pay is compensation added to an employee's paycheck to make up for work performed that wasn’t paid in a previous pay period. Retro pay is unpaid wages an employer owes an employee from a previous pay period.

What is a Floating Holiday?

A floating holiday is a flexible paid day off that employees can decide when to take. A floating holiday is a benefit some employers offer employees in addition to PTO or paid vacation.

What is Imputed Income?

Imputed income means income attributed to taxable non-cash benefits an employee receives in the form of fringe benefits that are not a part of their wage or salary, such as gym membership, company car, moving expense, life insurance, or tuition.

Gross vs Net Income: Definition and How to Calculate

A gross income is an employee’s total income before taxes and deductions are subtracted. A net income is an employee’s gross income minus taxes and other paycheck deductions.

What is an Employee Evaluation?

An employee evaluation is a method used by managers and human resource departments to review an employee's performance during a set period of time. An employee evaluation also provides employee feedback, identifies potential training and development, and provides a basis for promotion and pay raises.

What is a Contingent Worker Meaning?

Contingent workers are independent contractors who are people who lend their skills and expertise to a business on a project-by-project or short-term basis. A contingent worker is someone who works for an organization without being hired as their employee.

What is Bi-Weekly Pay?

A bi-weekly pay schedule is when employees are paid every other week on a specific day of the week. It is the most commonly used pay schedule by employers to deliver checks to its employees on the same day every other week.

I Got Audited by Unemployment

The payroll tax audit ensures workers are properly classifed, payments made to employees are properly reported, and protects workers’ rights to receive benefits. If you fail an EDD or California Labor Commissioner audit, your company could be liable to face penalties and interest on the owed taxes.

What Happens if You Fail an Unemployment Audit?

In you fail an unemployment audit, the commission adds a 15% penalty to the tax. If you fail to defend yourself the EDD will impose a significant fine against you and your company.

EDD Unemployment Fraud Penalties

Unemployment Insurance (UI) fraud is a misdemeanor punishable by law and violators may be sentenced up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. If the unemployment insurance fraud convictionis a felony, it's punishable by 16 months, 2 or 3 years in a California state prison, and a fine up to $20,000.

How Do I Appeal a Labor Commissioner Decision In California?

The appeal must be filed within 15 days from the date on the certification of service by mail (or 20 days if the ODA was served to an address out of state).

What Does Employee Onboarding Mean in HR?

In human resources, onboarding is defined as the processes in which new hires are integrated into the organization. It includes activities such as integrating a new employee onto payroll, sexual harassment training, company policy, etc.

What are Formal and Informal Communication in Business?

Formal communication is communicating of official information about the business or workplace. Examples of formal communication are reports, business letters, purchase orders, while informal communication are often telephone or in person conversations.

Employee Relationship Management

Employee relations refers to the relationship between or among an employer and its employees. Employee relationship management refers to managing the relation between the various employees in an organization.

Who Are Millennials

Any person born between 1981 and 1996 (ages 27 to 42 in 2023) is considered a Millennial, and anyone born after 1997 are considered Generation Z.

What Triggers an EDD Audit?

Employee registry, employee benefits, and independent contractor filing for unemployment benefits can trigger an EDD audit. Typically an independent contractor filing for unemployment will trigger an EDD audit because an independent contractor is not eligible for unemployment benefits, so the worker’s claim triggers the EDD audit to look into the worker's misclassification as an independent contractor.

Hostile Work Environment

A hostile work environment occurs when the harassment is so severe and pervasive that it causes an employee emotion distress, and negatively affect the worker's job performance. The behavior must be objectively abusive and not merely offensive.

EDD Audits California

The EDD often audits a company if a worker a company classified as an independent contractor applies for unemployment benefits. The EDD audit aims to find inconsistencies and determine if the employer has fully paid the owed payroll taxes under California law.

California On Call Pay

Yes, employees must be paid at their regular straight-time rate of pay for the period the employee is on standby for work.

Reimbursing employee expenses

Under California employment law, employers must reimburse employees for all necessary business expenses incurred by the employee in direct consequence of the discharge of his or her duties or of his or her obedience to the directions of the employer.

California Independent Contractor Payment Laws

Labor Code section 226.8 prohibits the willful misclassification of employees as independent contractors. An independent contractor is a person or business who provides a specific service to another company in exchange for compensation.

Disparate Impact vs. Disparate Treatment: What are the differences?

Discriminatory employment practices include disparate treatment and disparate impact. Disparate treatment refers to intentional employment practices that discriminate. Disparate impact refers to unintentional employment practices that discriminate.

Do Employers Verify Doctor’s Notes?

An employer has the right to verify that a doctor’s note was issued by contacting the doctor. The employee’s direct supervisor may not contact the doctor’s office to verify.

California Paid Sick Law

Under California’s Healthy Workplace Families Act, employers shall allow and provide employees to use three days or a minimum of 24 hours for paid sick leave. An employee accrues one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked.

Doctor’s Note for Work

A doctor’s note is a letter from a healthcare provider that provides simple information about an employee’s illness, medical condition, or injury. An employer may require a doctor’s note for an employee to return to work or for medical leave.

What is a Loli?

Loli means a young girl, underage girl, or childlike female character, particularly in the lolicon genre. The term loli is often used in connection with males attracted to young girls that leans towards erotic characteristic. The loli subculture has its origin in Japanese anime and manga.

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