What mistakes could you Company be Making on Your Paycheck?
Labor law in California changes constantly as new laws are passed and new cases are decided in court creating new precedence. Because of these regular changes it is easy for ill-informed companies to make mistakes when it comes to paying their employees properly. Don’t assume your HR department knows best, arm yourself with knowledge.
While many of these payroll mistakes are made by smaller employers who don’t have a payroll department or use a professional service, the problem are consistently found in larger employers as well. Such wide spread problems have made California a common battleground for employee class action over the past ten years.
So what are the 4 BIGGEST mistakes companies make?
#1. The misclassification of employees: by calling and employee exempt, or ineligible for overtime you effectively claim they fall under one or more of the state mandated exemptions. If you are paid a salary you may still be entitled to overtime pay in certain circumstances. Being a salaried employee does not mean you can be forced to work 12 hours a day and with no breaks, without getting any overtime pay. You must fit the exemption. Not just be given a title or salary.
#2. Unreimbursed expenses: it is not uncommon for employers to wrongfully require employees to cover part, or their own, entire job related outgoing expenses. Often abuse areas include, purchasing uniforms, or use of home and cell phones for company business.
#3. Trading of “Comp time”: usually this looks like trading one work period for another. If you boss asks you to stay late tonight and you can come in late tomorrow, this is called comp time and wrong for one important reason; if you stayed two hours late, working 10 hours, those two extra hours would have been at time and half overtime.
#4. Stripping vacation pay. In California there are laws that protect your vacation pay as it is earned. The only thing an employer can do to limit vacation pay as it accrues, is to cap how much you can have without using it. In other words, your company can have a cap of 4 weeks paid vacation and you must use some or all of the PTO before you can accrue any additional time. They cannot, however dictate that the time expires or that you lose earned vacation time if you do not use it by a certain date. This is common in other states, but is against the labor laws in California.
United Employees Law Group has helped over 1500 individuals in cases involving their employment. If you believe your employer is or has made mistakes in your compensation, they can add up faster than you might think. Call us today and we will examine your situation for free.
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