Wage & Hour Compliance in California: Risks Employers Can’t Ignore

Video Transcript

Bryan Hawkins
Labor & Employment Partner & Managing Partner for California Offices

I am Bryan Hawkins. I am the current office managing partner for the California offices:  that’s Sacramento, San Francisco, and San Diego. I am also a Labor and Employment partner here at Sacramento.

What is the No. 1 issue employers are facing?

You know, California is so unique. I mean it is always about wage and hour policies for employers, and that is always key. One thing that we are seeing here recently is the courts are continually saying, do not round your time for employers so employers need to watch out for that. Also, retaliation. The courts and the state have really made clear that they do not want employers to retaliate against employees who are taking leave for reporting unlawful conduct. So, really be careful about that stuff with your California employees.

Why should clients pay attention?

Money. It is expensive to get it wrong. California laws here are very persnickety and also, the penalties are very draconian. So even the smallest mistake, even though it may cause minimal damages for the employees, can really, really cause significant exposure to the employers.

What is coming next in wage and hour?

Here in California, I like to tell clients that basically, it starts here in California, then slowly makes its way up to I-5 to Seattle into Portland. And what we are seeing here is that more courts are saying if an employee takes or engages in protected conduct, then there is a presumption that any negative action taken against them was retaliatory. So as employers, you need to make sure that if you are going to discipline an employee, whether that is termination, a PIP, or even a leave of absence, you need to make sure that your paperwork is in place, that it is really kind of bolstered to make sure that you are doing the right thing for that employee.

How can technology help you manage risk?

I think, of course, AI, it is 2025. The answer is always going be AI. But I think, particularly for wage and hour policies and procedures, making sure that your time records are being kind of maintained and corrected by AI is just so critical to make sure that if there are any errors, any irregularities, that those are noted and corrected as soon as possible to make sure they do not kind of grow and become a class action that you have to face as an employer.

What steps should employers take now?

Really train your managers. They are your boots on the ground because as the employers, you have very pristine policies. If they are not being implemented properly, it does not really matter. You want to make sure the managers know the rules and know how to know how to put in place those rules for the employees.

You know, I wish more people would say what can I do to protect against it? Because so many times it is the attorney you come in after the fact after the mistake has been made. It so much harder to kind of clean up that mess than it is to kind of prevent it in the first place. As a counselor, I really enjoy helping to prevent lawsuits for my clients. If you come to me, I want to kind of see what you are doing and see what we can do to improve it before a lawsuit comes so you do not have to deal with paying me for my time to fix a lawsuit.