New laws cover key job, pay issues
About three dozen employment laws take effect in California next year, including ones that bolster equal-pay protections, help workers with chronic health conditions and give parents unpaid time off to research schools and deal with child care emergencies.
The most significant law on an annual list put out by the California Chamber of Commerce is SB358, the widely publicized Fair Pay Act.
Under existing law, employers must give men and women working in the same establishment equal pay for equal work. Under the new law, they must provide equal pay for “substantially similar work when viewed as a composite of skill, effort and responsibility.”
The law also eliminates the phrase “same establishment,” which generally means the same building or campus. In the future, men and women working for the same employer in different parts of the state will be entitled to equal pay for substantially similar work, unless the employer can prove that disparities result from bona fide factors other than sex. These could include a seniority or merit system, or one that bases earnings on quantity or quality of production.
An employer could make the case for a pay differential if workers are in areas with different costs of living or minimum wages, said Jennifer Barrera, a policy advocate with the chamber.
The law also “makes it very clear that you can talk to coworkers” about their pay, said Rachael Langston, staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center. Employers cannot retaliate against or fire employ-
ees for discussing compensation.
Here are some other notable new laws. Unless noted, they take effect Jan. 1:
SB579 gives employees more reasons to take protected, unpaid time off for school activities or child care. Under existing law, employers with 25 or more workers in the same location must give parents who have children in K-12 schools or in a licensed day care facility unpaid time off to participate in school activities. They can take up to eight hours a month and 40 hours in a 12-month period for such purposes, such as volunteering or attending performances or meetings.
The new law changes the phrase day care “facility” to day care “provider” and expands the purposes for which they can take the same amount of unpaid leave. It now includes finding, enrolling or re-enrolling a child in a school or licensed day care provider and dealing with school and child care emergencies. This could include the babysitter calling in sick or the school sending kids home for an unexpected reason.
It also expands the definition of parent to include a guardian, stepparent, foster parent or grandparent.
SB667, effective July 1, changes the waiting period for workers who file a second disability claim for the same or a related condition.
Under existing law, “If you were out on state disability insurance, and then came back to work for more than 14 days, then went back out on disability for the same or a related illness, you had to file a whole new claim. Each time you file a new claim there is a new one-week waiting period,” during which disability benefits are not paid, Langston said.
The new law waives the waiting period for people who already served one when they file a subsequent claim for the same or related condition within 60 days of the initial claim. In other words, a worker can come back to work for up to 60 days without triggering a new waiting period, rather than 14 days.
The new law will benefit people with chronic health conditions who can still work periodically. “They should not be penalized. That should be encouraged,” Langston said. She added that state disability insurance is employee-funded and “people should be able to use the benefits they paid for.”
SB588 expands the ability of the labor commissioner to collect judgments arising from an employer not paying wages, said Chaya Mandelbaum, a partner with Rudy Exelrod Zieff and Lowe who represents employees.
“Some of the most egregious wage and hour violations are committed by employers that are difficult to collect from,” he said. For example, they might try to avoid paying judgments by changing the company’s name, creating a successor company or hiding assets.
Under the new law, the commissioner can issue levies and liens against employer property, and owners, officers and managing agents are made personally liable.
AB1513 establishes how piece-rate employees are compensated for rest breaks. These are workers who are paid each time they complete a task or produce a product. Some earn an hourly rate plus a piece rate.
In the past, some were compensated for rest breaks at minimum wage or their hourly rate. Under the new law, employers must pay them for rest breaks at a rate that also takes their piece-rate compensation into account, said Felicia Reid, an attorney with Hirschfeld Kraemer who represents employers.
“They have to be paid at their regular rate of pay, which is an hourly rate that includes their average piece-rate wage,” she said. “This is going to result in a lot of classaction litigation.”
AB1506, on the other hand, will help reduce litigation, Barrera said. It amends the Private Attorney General Act to give employers time to correct certain mistakes on itemized wage statements before employees can sue them.
Specifically, they have 33 days to correct statements that don’t have both the beginning and end date of the pay period or that do not have the legal name and address of the employer. Under current law, employees can sue immediately, on behalf of themselves and anyone else harmed.
Employers had been facing a rash of such lawsuits for minor violations, which are often settled, Barrera said. This was urgency legislation that took effect as soon as it was signed Oct. 2.
Although it’s not a result of new legislation, the state minimum wage will go up to $10 an hour from $9. This is the last increase under a law signed in 2013.
An employer could make the case for a pay differential if workers are in areas with different costs of living or minimum wages, said Jennifer Barrera, a policy advocate with the chamber.