Minimum Wage Lawyer – The minimum wage increases the standard of living of California workers, reduces poverty, and forces businesses to treat their employees fairly. Surprisingly, employers often pay under the minimum wage – often to the underprivileged or disenfranchised. When they do, not only are they breaking the law, but they are depriving their employees of any standard of living.
If your employer habitually pays you less than minimum wage, contact our employment lawyer immediately. We have an entire webpage that is dedicated to tracking CA’s ever changing minimum wage. You can view the page here.
Minimum Wage Law Basics
You Can’t Waive Minimum Wage
First of all, employees may not agree to waive their right to minimum wage. You cannot accept $7.00 per hour (which is $3.00 less than the current minimum wage of $10.00 per hour). This applies even if the Federal Minimum wage is lower than the CA minimum wage. Employer’s must pay employees according to the CA’s minimum wage.
Piece Rate & the Minimum Wage
If employees are paid on a per unit basis (piece rate) the minimum wage is still applicable. That includes “non-productive” time where the employees do not have any assigned tasks.
Deductions
California law allows some employers who provide meals and lodging to deduct some specified amounts from their employees minimum wage. However, an employer may not require employees to accept meals or lodging as part of their minimum wage unless the employer gets prior voluntary consent from the employee.
Tips
California law prohibits an employer from crediting tips toward the minimum wage. Moreover, an employer may not take any part of a tip given to an employee by a patron. With regards to tip pooling, several restaurant cases hold that employer-mandated tip pooling, whereby employees pool and share their tips with other employees, is permissible. However, other laws state that tip pooling is impermissible.
While our office is located in Orange County, we serve clients throughout California.