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Rick Rossignol

EXEMPT or NON-EXEMPT

Posted by & filed under BLOG, Fair Labor Standards Act, Human Resources, Wage and Hour Compliance.

The Department of Labor is increasing its audit to ensure employers are not misclassifying employees exempt. In addition, they are changing the rules to make more positions classified as non-exempt.

Employers should audit their employee classifications to ensure they do not have misclassified employees. Conducting job analysis on for all positions is the best way to ensure positions meet both the duties and the salary test.

Being paid on a “salary basis” means an employee regularly receives a predetermined amount of compensation each week. The predetermined amount cannot be reduced because of variations in the quality or quantity of the employee’s work.

The New rule increases the minimum weekly salary to $970 a week.

1. Employers should evaluate the weekly salaries of exempt employees. An employee earning less than $970.

An employee earning less than $970 should be reclassified Non-Exempt and paid overtime.

If an employee meets the duties test increase their pay to $970 or more and continue to pay a weekly salary.

2. The 2-second test is the duties test, employees are exempt based on their job duties meeting one of the four exemptions. The duties must be performed 51% of their job.

Evaluate their job duties and hours to determine the classification of their position.
Develop job descriptions and have employees sign and date the job descriptions.
Employers should expect classification audits in 2016 and beyond!

COMMON WAGE AND HOUR MISTAKES

Posted by & filed under BLOG, Fair Labor Standards Act, Human Resources, Wage and Hour Compliance.

Employers need to audit there wage and hour practices to ensure that they are not making mistakes that would cause them to violate Employment Law.

MISCLASSIFYING NON-EXEMPT EMPLOYEES AS EXEMPT FROM FSLA.

Lucrative attorneys’ fees continue to motivate lawyers to file individual and class actions on behalf of improperly classified employees. Two tests to qualify for exempt salary and duties. Meeting the duties test is a high standard. Salary threshold changes. The Department of Labor proposed significant increases to the minimum weekly salaries of exempt employees. The indications from Washington are that these changes may be adopted by the spring or summer of 2016, resulting in the doubling of some employees’ salaries in order to maintain them as exempt. Employers are advised to use this lead time to conduct a cost-benefit analysis, comparing the cost of increasing exempt employees’ salaries versus having them be non-exempt and paying for additional overtime.

INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR OR EMPLOYEE? 

State and federal agencies have stepped up enforcement and information-sharing efforts to identify misclassified workers and collect revenues. The Department of Labor recently published guidance on what distinguishes an employee from a contractor for wage-hour purposes.

FAILURE TO PROVIDE WRITTEN NOTICE TO EMPLOYEES OF THEIR WAGE RATE, PAY PERIOD, PAY DAY AND A DESCRIPTION OF FRINGE BENEFITS, INCLUDING ANY CHANGES. 

It seems obvious that employers must inform their employees of their rate of pay and the way their pay will be calculated. The regulation requires more. Each employee must receive the required information in writing and must sign an acknowledgment of receipt of the information. An offer letter and a copy of the company’s employee handbook with a signed acknowledgment is sufficient at the time of hire. A written notification signed by the employee is, however, required every time the employee’s pay or benefits change, and the notice should be provided in advance of any change.

 FAILURE TO PAY MINIMUM WAGE FOR ALL HOURS WORKED.

Commission employees must earn minimum wage for every hour worked and must be paid the regular rate of pay. Employee must be paid for every hour worked. There are no commission only jobs. Making deductions from paycheck that takes hourly wage below minimum.

EMPLOYING ILLEGAL ALIENS.

The Department of Homeland security has a Handbook for employers to follow to ensure employers hire people who have the right to work in the US. Employer must track documents in Section “A” for expiration dates. A common mistake is employers are not tracking. Which could mean illegal aliens.

FAILURE TO SECURE AND MAINTAIN WORKERS’ COMPENSATION COVERAGE FOR ALL WORKERS.

Misclassified Independent Contractor, An employer could find itself responsible for all medical expenses incurred by a misclassified employee injured on the job.

UNDERSTANDING REPORTING TIME RULES

Each workday an employee is required to report to work, but is not put to work or is furnished with less than half of his or her usual or scheduled day’s work, the employee must be paid for half the usual or scheduled day’s work, but in no event for less than two hours nor more than four hours, at his or her regular rate of pay.

For example, if an employee is scheduled to report to work for an eight-hour shift and only works for one hour, the employer is nonetheless obligated to pay the employee four hours of pay at his or her regular rate of pay (one for the hour worked, and three as reporting time pay). Only the one-hour actually worked, however, counts as actual hours worked. If an employee is required to report to work a second time in any one workday and is furnished less than two hours of work on the second reporting, he or she must be paid for two hours at his or her regular rate of pay.

FAILURE TO KEEP ACCURATE RECORD OF ALL HOURS WORKED.

The employer is the keeper of the record. If he cannot provide records to prove what hours the employee worked and was paid he loses. Making sure you are tracking hours, and meal periods, time off, protects the employer.

FAILURE TO PAY ALL WAGES DUE FOR HOURS WORKED.

If an employer discharges an employee, the wages earned and unpaid at the time of discharge are due and payable immediately. An employer who lays off a group of employees by reason of the termination of seasonal employment in the curing, canning, or drying of any variety of perishable fruit, fish or vegetables, shall be deemed to have made immediate payment when the wages of said employees are paid within a reasonable time as necessary for computation and payment thereof; provided, however, that the reasonable time shall not exceed 72 hours, and further provided that payment shall be made by mail to any employee who so requests and designates a mailing address therefor.

Minimum Wages goes up!

Posted by & filed under BLOG, Fair Labor Standards Act, Human Resources, Wage and Hour Compliance.

2016 Employees earn more 

Minimum Wage—Effective Jan. 1, 2016, is raised to $10.00 per hour in California. To be exempt from FSLA employees must be paid a weekly salary that is two times more than minimum wage. Example: The minimum wage is $10.00 and the weekly salary must be $20.00 or more. Salary of $800.00 a week. It applies to all Cities in CA… so if the city min goes up so does the weekly salary. An easy way for an employer to misclassify employee exempt by not paying the right weekly salary.

Local Minimum Wage Rates

In addition to state minimum wage hikes, a number of major cities and counties will be increasing their wage rates in 2016. As indicated below, some of those localities will increase rates on Jan. 1, while others have announced raises for later next year.

Municipality or County 2015 Minimum Wage 2016 Minimum Wage
(as of 1-1-16)		 Other Scheduled
2016 Increases and
Effective Dates
Berkeley, CA $11.00 $11.00 $12.53 (10-1-16)
Emeryville, CA $12.25 to $14.44 based on employer size $12.25 to $14.44 based on employer size $13.00 to $14.82 based on employer size (7-1-16)
Los Angeles, CA $9.00 $9.00 $10.50 for employers with 26 or more employees (7-1-16)
Mountain View, CA $10.30 $11.00
Oakland, CA $12.25 $12.55
Palo Alto, CA N/A $11.00
Richmond, CA $9.60 $11.52
San Francisco, CA $12.25 $12.25 $13.00 (7-1-16)
Santa Clara, CA $9.00 $11.00
Sunnyvale, CA $10.30 $10.30 $11.00 (7-1-16)

 

Salary test for exempt from overtime—Effective Jan. 1, 2016, employers can treat computer-software employees as exempt from overtime requirements if such employees earn at least $41.85 an hour, $7,265.43 a month or $87,185.14 a year; licensed physicians and surgeons are exempt from overtime if they earn at least $76.24 an hour.

Expansion of Labor Commissioner Enforcement Authority. AB 970, effective January 1, 2016, amends Labor Code sections 558, 1197, and 1197.1 to authorize the Labor Commissioner to enforce local laws regarding overtime and minimum wage provisions and to issue citations and penalties for violations, provided the local entity has not already cited the employer for the same violation. The bill also authorizes the Labor Commissioner to issue citations and penalties to employers who violate the expense reimbursement provisions of Labor Code section 2802. San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, LA, etc have local minimum wages that are higher than the state. Employers should make sure salaried employees are making two times minimum wage based on the min set for the city.

Exempt Employees DOL proposes increased salary test.–The Feds have proposed raising the salary threshold from $455 per week to $970 per week. This amount would be more than California standard of 2 times the minimum wage. This raises the salary to be exempt from the fair labor standards act to $50,440 annually.  The employer should review their exempt employees and analyze the hours they are working? It’s a good time to review the job descriptions and content of the work. They estimate that we will get the final regulation in the 4 quarter of 2016.

Reimbursement of Expenses Cochran v. Schwan’s Home Service court found labor code sections 2802 requires the employer to pay a reasonable percentage of monthly cell phone bill for an employee who is required to use the phone for business. The court says the cost is an operating expense of the employer and cannot pass its operating cost on to employees. Broad implications.

Mileage Rates for 2016– Beginning on Jan. 1, 2016, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups or panel trucks) will be:

  • 54 cents per mile for business miles driven, down from 57.5 cents for 2015
  • 19 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes, down from 23 cents for 2015
  • 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations

The business mileage rate decreased 3.5 cents per mile and the medical, and moving expense rates decrease 4 cents per mile from the 2015 rates. The charitable rate is based on the statute.

Piece Rate. AB 1513, adding Labor Code section 226.2 and repealing sections 77.7, 127.6, and 138.65 will make it, even more, difficult for California employers to pay employees on a piece-rate basis. Effective January 1, 2016, employers must pay piece-rate employees for rest and recovery periods (and all other periods of “nonproductive” time) separately from (and in addition to) their piece-rate compensation. Specifically, employers will need to pay the following rates for rest and recovery periods and “other nonproductive time”:

  • Rest and recovery periods. Employers must pay a piece-rate employee for rest and recovery periods at an average hourly rate that is determined by dividing the employee’s total compensation for the workweek (not including compensation for rest and recovery periods and overtime premiums) by the total hours worked during the workweek (not including rest and recovery periods).
  • Other nonproductive time. Employers must pay piece-rate employees for other nonproductive time at a rate that is no less than the minimum wage. If employers pay an hourly rate for all hours worked in addition to piece-rate wages, then those employers would not need to pay amounts in addition to that hourly rate for the other nonproductive time.

Employers must specify additional categories of information on a piece-rate employee’s itemized wage statement: (i) the total hours of compensable rest and recovery periods, (ii) the rate of compensation paid for those periods, and (iii) the gross wages paid for those periods during the pay period. If employers do not pay a separate hourly rate for all hours worked (in addition to piece-rate wages), then the employer must also list (i) the total hours of other non-productive time, (ii) the rate of compensation for that time, and (iii) the gross wages paid for that time during the pay period.

Industrial Welfare Commission: Wage Orders—Hospital Meal Periods. SB 327 clarifies that existing law regarding a health care employee’s ability to waive voluntarily one of the two meal periods on shifts exceeding 12 hours remains in effect. The bill states that the rules remain the same as they have been since 1993 (as expressly embraced by the Industrial Welfare Commission in 2000). The legislation was adopted to remove any uncertainty caused by the decision in Gerard v. Orange Coast Mem. Med. Ctr., 234 Cal. App. 4th 285 (2015).

Fair Wage Equality. As we discussed in detail immediately after the Governor’s October 6 signing of SB 358, the bill, effective January 1, 2016, amends Labor Code section 1197.5 to prohibit employers from paying any employee at a wage rate less than that paid to employees of the opposite sex for doing substantially similar work—when viewed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility. The new legislation also requires employers to affirmatively demonstrate that a wage differential is based entirely and reasonably upon enumerated factors, such as a seniority system, a merit system, a system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production, or a bona fide factor that is not based on or derived from a sex-based differential in compensation and that is consistent with a business necessity. The bill contains anti-retaliation provisions and provides a private right of action to enforce its provisions.

Independent Contractor- The US Department of Labor issued an opinion on the factor it will use to determine whether the worker is an employee or Independent contractor. The guidance explicitly makes clear that most workers are employees under FSLA. It also states it will continue to crack down on misclassifications. The key factors: Extent the work is an integral part of employer’s business, worker opportunity profit, and loss, relative investment of employer and work, the permanency of the relationship.

EDD has ramped up misclassification of Independent Contractor, aggressively going after employers for not paying employment taxes. If you have questions about your classification as a worker or independent contractor… use this form. Note the form is only good for EDD. http://www.edd.ca.gov/pdf_pub_ctr/de38.pdf 

Kin Care. SB 579, effective January 1, 2016, amends California’s Kin Care law (Labor Code section 233) to tie its protections to the reasons and definition of “family member” specified in the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 (i.e., paid sick leave law). The bill also expands coverage of California’s school activities leave (Family School Partnership Act, Labor Code section 230.8) to include daycare facilities and cover child care provider emergencies, and the finding, enrolling, or reenrolling of a child in a school or daycare, and would extend protections to an employee who is a step-parent or foster parent or who stands in loco parentis to a child.

PAGA. AB 1506, amending California’s Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”) codified in Labor Code sections 2699, 2699.3, and 2699.5, became effective upon the Governor’s signature on October 2, 2015. PAGA, as thus amended, now gives employers a limited right to cure certain wage-statement violations before an aggrieved employee may sue under PAGA. Specifically, an employer can cure violations of the wage-statement statute (Labor Code section 226(a)) with respect to providing either the inclusive dates of the pay period or the name and address of the legal entity that is the employer. An employer can take advantage of this provision only once for the same violation of the statute during each 12-month period.

Employer Liability: Employee Family Member Protected Complaints & Labor Contractor Joint Liability. AB 1509, effective January 1, 2016, amends Labor Code sections 98.6, 1102.5, and 6310 to forbid employers from retaliating against employees for being a family member of an employee who has, or is perceived to have, engaged in activities protected under those Labor Code sections (i.e., generally, making complaints about working conditions or pay, or whistleblowing).

Annual E-Verify Bill. AB 622, effective January 1, 2016, adds section 2814 to the Labor Code to prohibit an employer from using E-Verify to check the employment authorization status of an existing employee or an applicant who has not received an offer of employment, except as required by federal law or as a condition of receiving federal funds. Each employer that uses E-Verify in violation of this new section is liable for $10,000 per violation.

Paid Sick Leave Amendments. AB 304, signed by the Governor July 13, 2015, and effective on that date, amends provisions of the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 codified in Labor Code sections 245.5, 246, and 247.5.

Accommodation Request as Protected Activity. AB 987, effective January 1, 2016, amends Government Code section 12940 to overturn the interpretation in Rope v. Auto-Chlor Sys. of Washington, Inc., 220 Cal. App. 4th 635 (2013), that an accommodation request is not a protected activity. The Legislature thus intended to clarify that a request for reasonable accommodation based on religion or disability constitutes protected activity. The Fair Employment and Housing Act, thus amended, will now expressly prohibit retaliation and discrimination against a person for requesting accommodation, regardless of whether the request is granted.

Security  2016, the taxable wage base will remain the same — $118,500 maximum taxable earnings. The Social Security withholding rate is unchanged for 2016 and remains at 6.2 percent, up to the maximum taxable amount.

Labor Commissioner is authorized to file a lien on real estate, or a levy on an employer’s property, or impose a stop order on an employer’s business in order to assist an employee in collecting unpaid wages where there is a judgment against the employer. Any employer, or an individual acting on behalf of an employer, who violates any provision regulating minimum wages or hours and days of work in any order of the Industrial Welfare Commission, or who violates other related provisions of law may be held liable as the employer for such violation. A bond of up to $150,000 may be required of an employer who does not promptly pay a judgment for unpaid wages.  (SB 588; adds sections 690.020-690.050 to the Code of Civil Procedure; amends section 98 of the Labor Code, and adds sections 96.8, 238, 238.1, 238.2, 238.3, 238.4, 238.5, and 558.1).

The duration of the “disability benefits period” is extended from 14 days to 60 days. (SB 667; amends, repeals, and adds sections 2608 and 2627 of the Unemployment Insurance Code).

Beginning on January 1, 2017, an employer with 10 or more employees must file all reports and returns electronically, and remit all contributions for unemployment insurance premiums by electronic funds transfer, except as provided. Beginning on January 1, 2018, these electronic filing and fund transfer requirements will be extended to all employers. The bill would authorize the granting of a waiver from these requirements. The bill would impose a penalty of $50 on those employers who fail to file a quarterly return electronically without good cause.  (AB 1245; amends sections 1088, 1110, 1112, 1114, 13002, and 13021 of the Unemployment Insurance Code, and adds section 1112.1).

Affordable Care Act requires applicable large employers to file information reporting returns with the IRS and employees. ALEs are generally those employers with 50 or more full-time employees, including full-time equivalent employees in the preceding calendar year.

The vast majority of employers are not ALEs and are not subject to this health care tax provision.  However, those who are must use Form 1094-C, Transmittal of Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage Information Returns, and Form 1095-C, Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage, to report the information about offers of health coverage and enrollment in health coverage for their employees.

Here are eight things ALEs should know about the information returns they must file at the beginning of 2016.

  1. Form 1095-C is used to report information about each employee who was a full-time employee of the ALE member for any month of the calendar year.
  2. Form 1094-C must be used to report to the IRS summary information for each employer, and to transmit Forms 1095-C to the IRS.

Waiting Time Penalties

Posted by & filed under BLOG, Fair Labor Standards Act, Human Resources, Wage and Hour Compliance.

Labor Code Section 203 makes a California employer liable if it has willfully failed to timely pay final earned wages to an employee whose employment has terminated. The offending employer must pay an amount equal to the employee’s daily wages from the due date until the date of payment, up to a maximum of 30 days. Waiting Time penalties can result so long as the employer knew what it was doing, the late payment occurred, and the timing of the payment was within the employer’s control. The employer’s intent to pay the wages on time would not be a defense. The only viable defense would be a showing that the employer, in good faith, disputed that any further final wages were owed on the due date.

 

 

 

 

Minimum Wage Change 2016

Posted by & filed under BLOG, Human Resources.

The $10 state-wide minimum wage that hits us on January 1, 2016, will complicate things even more than the last increase.

The obvious employer takeaway from the new minimum wage hike is that now it’s time to pay more:

  • Pay more hourly wages. As in 2014, the increase in minimum wage will increase what employers must pay for regular and overtime wages.
  • Pay more in salary. To maintain salary-exempt status for administrative, executive, and professional employees, employers must now pay a higher minimum salary (calculated at two times the current minimum wage). The salary minimum will thus increase from $37,440 to $41,600.
  • Pay more in commissions. To maintain overtime-exempt status for commissioned salespeople (in retail and service establishments, with the threshold calculated as 1.5 times the current minimum wage), employers must now pay a higher minimum earnings threshold—$15.01 per hour—and over one-half of that amount must consist of commissions, so commissions might have to be increased accordingly.

And, of course, employers, under the Wage Theft Prevention Act, must notify non-exempt employees in writing of any changes to their new rate of pay within seven calendar days from the time of the change (i.e., by January 7, 2016).

While these implications are all readily apparent, the new minimum wage has more subtle implications as well, particularly for employers of unionized employees. Among possibly other implications are these to consider as the new year looms:

  • A “Non-Productive” Time Piece Rate Calculation Impact? As discussed here, effective January 1, 2016, employers paying employees on a piece-rate basis must pay for “other nonproductive time” (when the employee is under the employer’s control but is not engaged in the piece-rate activity). The hourly rate calculation for that time must be no less than the minimum wage, which will increase to $10 on January 1st. Note that this law also applies to unionized employees.
  • An Impact On Meal And Lodging Credits? Wage orders in virtually every industry or occupation allow the value of meals and lodging furnished by the employer to be credited toward the employer’s minimum wage obligation up to specific amounts. Employers who use this form of compensation as part of their wage obligations must adjust accordingly to ensure that they are meeting the increased minimum wage obligations.

The City of Sacramento Votes to Increase the Minimum Wage

Posted by & filed under BLOG, Human Resources.

The wage will go to $10.50 by 2017; $11 by 2018; $11.75 by 2019; and $12.50 by 2020. Small businesses (with 100 employees or less) will be on a different schedule, working from a timeline that is a year behind larger establishments. By offering health benefits, employers will be able to get a $2 credit, as long as they continue complying with the state minimum wage—which goes up to $10 per hour in January, 2016.

Disability Accommodation

Posted by & filed under BLOG, Human Resources.

Employers must make reasonable accommodations for employees’ and applicants’ known physical or mental disabilities unless they can show that these accommodations would cause undue hardship. Effective Jan. 1, 2016, employers cannot retaliate or otherwise discriminate against employees and applicants for requesting reasonable accommodations, regardless of whether their request is granted.

Reasonable accommodations are work modifications or adjustments that enable employees and applicants with disabilities to receive equal consideration for a job, perform essential job duties or have the same employment benefits and privileges as similarly situated employees without disabilities. Reasonable accommodations can include:

  • making facilities readily accessible to employees and applicants with disabilities (for example, by providing accessible break rooms, restrooms or reserved parking spots)
  • job restructuring
  • providing part-time or modified work schedules
  • reassigning employees to vacant positions
  • acquiring or modifying equipment or devices
  • adjusting or modifying examinations, training materials or policies
  • providing assistive aids and services such as qualified readers or interpreters
  • allowing employees and applicants with disabilities to bring assistive animals to the workplace
  • altering when or how essential job duties are performed and providing paid or unpaid leave for treatment and recovery

Undue hardship means actions that require significant difficulty or expense based on:

  • the nature and cost of accommodations
  • affected facilities’ overall financial resources and workforce size
  • the impact of accommodations on expenses, resources and facility operations
  • employers’ overall financial resources and overall business size in terms of workforce size and number, type and location of facilities
  • employers’ type of operations, including workforce composition, structure, and functions and
    affected facilities’ geographic separateness or administrative or fiscal relationship.

Interactive process: Employers must engage in a timely, good-faith, interactive process with employees and applicants who have known physical or mental disabilities to identify and implement effective, reasonable accommodations. Employers must participate in this process before claiming that accommodations would cause undue hardship. Employers are not required to eliminate essential job duties as an accommodation but might need to accommodate employees and applicants with disabilities in a way that enables them to meet quality or quantity standards.

Employers must initiate the interactive process when:

  • employees and applicants request reasonable accommodations;
  • they become aware of employees’ and applicants’ need for reasonable accommodations through a third party or direct observation of employee’s exhaust leave under relevant federal or state leave laws and require additional time to recuperate or other accommodations to perform essential job duties.

Employees and applicants with disabilities must:

  • provide reasonable medical documentation, if requested, to confirm the existence of their disabilities and their need for reasonable accommodations
  • provide information about their educational qualifications and work experience if their reassignment to another position is considered as accommodation and communicate directly with employers when possible.

Employers can require employees and applicants who request accommodations to provide reasonable medical information, including second opinions. If employees need reasonable accommodations that extend beyond one year, employers can ask them to provide medical documents substantiating their need for these accommodations on an annual basis. Employers must grant reasonable accommodation requests or reject them after considering them and discussing alternative accommodations with employees and applicants. Employers have the right to choose among effective accommodations, but cannot require employees and applicants with disabilities to accept accommodations and cannot retaliate against them for refusing accommodations. Employers can, however, inform employees and applicants that refusing accommodations might make them unable to perform their essential job duties.

Employment Law Changes 2016

Posted by & filed under BLOG, Human Resources.

Health Benefit Mandates—Effective Jan. 1, 2016, large group health care service plan contracts must provide a minimum value of at least 60 percent.
Effective for insured group health plans offered, amended or renewed on or after Jan. 1, 2017, and until Jan. 1, 2020, coverage for prescription drugs is revised. In addition, provisions related to prescription drug formularies, coverage for medically necessary drugs to treat HIV/AIDS, pharmacy choice and step therapy are revised

Health Insurance Marketplace—Effective for qualified health plans issued, amended or renewed through the California Health Benefit Exchange on or after Jan. 1, 2017, and until Jan. 1, 2018, provisions relating to essential health benefits are revised.

Minimum Wage—Effective Jan. 1, 2016, is raised to 10.00 per hour in California. The salary test in CA is to pay a weekly salary that is 2 times the minimum wage. It applies to all Cities in CA… so if the city min goes up so does the weekly salary. An easy way for employer to misclassify employee exempt by not paying the right weekly salary.

Overtime—Effective Jan. 1, 2016, employers can treat computer-software employees as exempt from overtime requirements if such employees earn at least $41.85 an hour, $7,265.43 a month or $87,185.14 a year; licensed physicians and surgeons are exempt from overtime if they earn at least $76.24 an hour.

Wage Payment Requirements— Effective Oct. 2, 2015, employers that fail to provide employees with a sufficient wage statement can reconcile violations before employees can file civil actions.

Security Security  2016, the taxable wage base will remain the same — $118,500 maximum taxable earnings. The Social Security withholding rate is unchanged for 2016 and remains at 6.2 percent, up to the maximum taxable amount.

Employers are prohibited from retaliating or otherwise discriminating against an employee for requesting accommodation of his or her disability or religious beliefs, regardless of whether the accommodation request was ultimately granted.  The new law is intended to clarify a portion of the holding in the published decision of Rope v. Auto-Clor System of Washington, Inc. 220 Cal. App. 4th 635 (2013).  (AB 987; amends Government Code section 12940).

Labor Commissioner is authorized to file a lien on real estate, or a levy on an employer’s property, or impose a stop order on an employer’s business in order to assist an employee in collecting unpaid wages where there is a judgment against the employer. Any employer, or individual acting on behalf of an employer, who violates any provision regulating minimum wages or hours and days of work in any order of the Industrial Welfare Commission, or who violates other related provisions of law may be held liable as the employer for such violation. A bond of up to $150,000 may be required of an employer who does not promptly pay a judgment for unpaid wages.  (SB 588; adds sections 690.020-690.050 to the Code of Civil Procedure; amends section 98 of the Labor Code, and adds sections 96.8, 238, 238.1, 238.2, 238.3, 238.4, 238.5, and 558.1).

The duration of the “disability benefit period” is extended from 14 days to 60 days. (SB 667; amends, repeals, and adds sections 2608 and 2627 of the Unemployment Insurance Code).

Beginning on January 1, 2017, an employer with 10 or more employees must file all reports and returns electronically, and remit all contributions for unemployment insurance premiums by electronic funds transfer, except as provided. Beginning on January 1, 2018, these electronic filing and fund transfer requirements will be extended to all employers. The bill would authorize the granting of a waiver from these requirements. The bill would impose a penalty of $50 on those employers who fail to file a quarterly return electronically without good cause.  (AB 1245; amends sections 1088, 1110, 1112, 1114, 13002, and 13021 of the Unemployment Insurance Code, and adds section 1112.1).

Two statutory provisions containing the term “alien,” used to describe any person who is not born in or a fully naturalized citizen of the United States, will be deleted from the Labor Code. (SB 432; deletes Labor Code sections 1725 and 2015).