Interestingly enough, our firm occasionally receives calls from potential clients claiming that their employer told them that the California wage and hour laws do not apply to them because the employer is too small. This is not true! This is one of the most common myths we hear about in employment law. Our firm has even heard employers say that the wage and hour laws only apply to public entities and not small companies. All of these are myths.
An employer is defined as any person who directly or indirectly, employs or exercises control over the wages, hours or working conditions of any person. As you can see from this definition, the definition of employer is broad. An employer can be as large as a multi-national company with thousands of employees, or as small as one person hiring an assistant out of his home. It does not matter the size as long as the person or entity is exercising control over the employee and paying his or her wages. Lastly, this applies to both private and public entities. If your employer is not paying properly under California wage and hour law, and is making up some excuse as to why his company does not need to follow the law, call our firm for a free consultation.